TechrightsSearch results for 'mickos' (page 1 of 5)

TechrightsSearch results for 'mickos' (page 1 of 5) http://techrights.org Free Software Sentry – watching and reporting maneuvers of those threatened by software freedom Thu, 05 Jan 2017 23:19:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.14 Links 28/7/2016: CORD as Linux Foundation Project, Wine 1.9.15 Released http://techrights.org/2016/07/29/wine-1-9-15-released/ http://techrights.org/2016/07/29/wine-1-9-15-released/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2016 05:00:12 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=94657 This great search was powered by Search Unleashed.
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… One of his major clients is HackerOne, whose CEO is Bacon’s and my mutual friend Mårten Mickos. But HackerOne is far from his only client. In the interview he says he recently got back from visiting a client in China, and that he has more work then he can handle.

Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 Update to Rename the Libertine Scope to “Desktop Apps”

Now that the Ubuntu Touch OTA-12 update has been successfully deployed to users’ devices, it’s time for Canonical’s engineers …

]]> http://techrights.org/2016/07/29/wine-1-9-15-released/feed/ 0 Links 9/7/2016: Skype Hype, Wine 1.9.14 http://techrights.org/2016/07/09/skype-hype/ http://techrights.org/2016/07/09/skype-hype/#comments Sat, 09 Jul 2016 12:38:21 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=94252

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Open source effort gives indigenous language an official typeface

Santali, an aboriginal South Asian language, has a brand new freely licensed font and set of cross-platform open source input tools on the way.

More than 6.2 million people in four South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan) speak Santali. In India, it is one of the 22 major languages as mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution. However, Santali is not the official language in regions where it is largely spoken, nor is it widely taught in schools. A large segment of the native speakers are socially and economically disadvantaged, which doesn’t help either.
6 Tips for Leveraging Open Source Technology

To understand the impact that open source technology has made on the enterprise, one need only look to the numbers. With over 35 million GitHub repositories, 1,961,460 lines of code on Hadoop and over a thousand Apache Spark contributors, the open source ecosystem is home to some of the world’s most innovative and impressive tech collaborations. With some of the biggest names in tech leading the charge — Apple’s Swift programming language, IBM’s machine learning technology SystemML and Facebook’s Relay JavaScript framework were all made public in the past year — open source technology is set to change the way we process, stream and analyze data.

In this slideshow, IBM VP of Big Data and Analytics on z, Dinesh Nirmal, and IBM VP of Offerings, Big Data and Analytics, Ritika Gunnar, outline several tips to help enterprises make the most of their open source strategy.
Google BigQuery Now Allows to Query All Open-Source Projects on GitHub

A full snapshot of more than 2.8 million open source project hosted on GitHub is now available in Google’s BigQuery, Google and GitHub announced. This will make it possible to query almost 2 billion source files hosted on GitHub using SQL.
How to Easily Load Test With Open Source Tools

If you’ve been here for the past few years, it would have been hard for you to miss the digital stampede from ticket-based processes to continuous delivery. But somehow, this transition has skipped over load-testing processes. This is probably because performance problems are hard to fix, as they are removed from the code.
8 ways to get started in open source

During his time recruiting young programmers on college campuses, one of the questions Chris Aniszczyk would hear a lot is, “How do I get involved in open source?”
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Google Is Working To Save Your Chrome Browser From Evil Quantum Computers
    
    Google has launched a new encryption algorithm in its Chrome web browser to fend off attacks launched by powerful quantum computers. Called the New Hope algorithm, this “post-quantum cryptography” is being tested in Chrome Canary builds to develop a stronger security algorithm within two years. The new encryption adds just 2KB of extra data that is sent in each direction when a new HTTPS connection is made.
SaaS/Back End
- Architectural Considerations for Open-Source PaaS and Container Platforms
  
  Less than a year ago, Wikibon published a series of research focused on Structured and Unstructured platforms, with a focus on how these platforms were designed to help developers build cloud-native applications. The evolution of PaaS and Container platforms has significantly evolved over the past 9-12 months. While some platforms are still highly Structured, the growing trend has been for the previously Unstructured platforms to become more “composable” or even Structured. Wikibon defines “composable” as a packaged offering that leverages a set of modular open source projects, but is more tightly integrated as a set of services that accelerate developer productivity and application deployments. Composable platforms are becoming more “opinionated” in their architectural choices, but they still allow architects, developers and operators some amount of architectural flexibility that may not be present in Structured platforms.
- Bridging Tech’s Diversity Gap
  
  Recently, the OpenStack Foundation conducted a survey to dig deeper into who was actually involved with its community. The results were quite shocking, showing that only 11 percent of the entire OpenStack population identify as women. Team leaders across the industry took notice, with many asking how they could improve diversity not only within their communities but their hiring practices.
- 3 Cutting-Edge Frameworks on Apache Mesos
CMS
- WordPress Stays Focused on Security, More Open Source CMS News
  
  WordPress upgraded to version 4.5.3 last month with a security release for all versions of the content management system. But it quickly discovered a number of vulnerabilities.
  
  A total of 17 bugs were found in the last three releases from this year, many of which allowed attackers to take over websites running on WordPress. And according to the latest estimates from BuiltWith, 48 percent of the top million websites globally run on WordPress. But popularity has a price: It is also one of the most hacked platforms.
Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)
- VMware Makes Open Source Move, SCALE Gets Ready & More… [Ed: same EMC which is responsible (through RSA) for NSA back doors]
  
  Why does this raise questions? Mainly because VMware doesn’t have a reputation for having much to do with open source, although it was an early player spurring the development of OpenStack Neutron (then called Quantum), a cloud networking controller and a networking-as-a-service project for OpenStack. Since Dell still appears to be in the process of purchasing VMware, this might be in preparation for some plans Dell has afoot.
  
  Hohndel’s hiring would certainly seem to indicate that something is in the works. Not only is he considered very good at what he does, he’s a huge open source advocate who often speaks at open source conferences — so he brings some FOSS community cred to the table. Stay tuned. I have a feeling that at VMware it’s going to be “something open source this way comes.”
- Nike To Release Three Open-Source Projects Through GitHub [Ed: from sweatshops to "open"]
  
  After being noticed by TechCrunch last week, Nike published three open-source projects on the version control system, GitHub – a space that companies such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and rival Adidas have used in the past. Nike’s release consisted of a JSON parsing framework, a distributed tracing solution for Java and a logging library written in Swift.
- Nike releases open source code on GitHub
- Nike to release three open-source projects through GitHub
- Microsoft’s Project Malmo AI platform goes open source [Ed: Project Malmo under #MIT licence isn't the full story; a lot of the required parts remain proprietary, hence openwashing of Microsoft]
- Microsoft’s Minecraft-Themed AI Tool, ‘Malmo’, Now Open Source
- Microsoft opens Minecraft-based AI research platform to all
- Microsoft open-sources its Minecraft AI testing platform
- Microsoft Open Sources Project Malmo, Another AI Milestone
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- “Java Training Wheels” Joins The GNU Project
  
  Java Training Wheels has become the newest GNU package.
Public Services/Government
- Spanish Ciudad Real to switch to open source
  
  The city of Ciudad Real is to switch to using free and open source software. A resolution by the city’s Ganemos party to use open source for all of the city’s 400 PC workstations, got a majority of the votes in a meeting on 23 May. The city will begin with an inventory of the potential hurdles, according to press reports.
- New site to promote proven open source ICT tools
  
  Adullact, the French organisation for public administrations using free software, has unveiled a new website, Comptoir du Libre.org, which aims to raise the interest of public administrations’ IT decision makers.
- First iVIS services to launch in September
  
  iVIS provides an open ICT platform for a fully digital school administration. The software is developed and made available as open source, so anyone is free to use the code, adjust it, and build their own modules, applications and mobile apps on top of it.
Openness/Sharing/Collaboration
- The Github for eco-housing builds $25k homes in just five days
- Open Building Institute to offer free “eco-building toolkit”
- Build A $25K Home In Five Days With The Github For Eco-Housing
- Open Hardware/Modding
  - Hexiwear open source wearables IoT platform, in distribution
    
    Distributor Mouser has the Hexiwear wearable platform products from MikroElektronika. Completely open source and developed in partnership with NXP, the Hexiwear device incorporates a low-power NXP Kinetis K64 microcontroller, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and wireless connectivity, and six onboard sensors into a compact wearable form factor for developers who need a complete Internet of Things (IoT) toolkit.
  - Low-Cost Mechaduino Open-Source Industrial Servo Motor Launches on Kickstarter
    
    RC servo motors are used in a wide variety of robotic and radio control applications, and are basically a maker’s best friend. They are cheap, easy to get ahold of and relatively reliable for resisting and correcting for external disturbances that interfere with the operation of the device they are powering. However, they are often limited in their ability to produce accurate motion, unlike more robust industrial servos that are capable of highly precise and advanced motion control. Unfortunately that accuracy and precision comes at a cost, often close to $1000 each, that makes them relatively prohibitive for the average maker.

Leftovers

Farewell to Microsoft’s Sun Tzu: Thanks for all the cheese, Kevin Turner

Kevin Turner’s departure as Microsoft’s chief salesman after 11 years marks the final passing of the Redmond old guard.

Chief operating officer Turner – KT, as he was known – was a chief of the old-school corporate kind; sales, marketing and Microsoft’s stores all reported into Turner.
Health/Nutrition
- Liverpool: Mamadou Sakho has doping case dismissed by Uefa
  
  Liverpool and France defender Mamadou Sakho has had a doping case against him dismissed by Uefa.
  
  The 26-year-old served a provisional 30-day suspension after testing positive for a ‘fat burner’ in March.
  
  Sakho admitted taking the substance, but Uefa had to investigate whether it was actually prohibited.
  
  Its control, ethics and disciplinary body dismissed the case after a hearing including experts from World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratories.
  
  “I am happy that this is finally over,” Sakho said. “It’s been a difficult time for me but I knew I had done nothing wrong.
Security
- Security updates for Friday
- Building a Safer Internet with HackerOne
  
  A while back my friend Mårten Mickos joined HackerOne as CEO. Around that time we had lunch and he shared with me more about the company. Mårten has an impressive track record, and I could see why he was so passionate about his new gig.
Defence/Aggression
- My son died in vain. But at least the world now sees Blair’s moral guilt
  
  The Iraq war was a fiasco waged on the basis of scandalous lies. My son Tom, aged 20, died serving his country in this war. If I didn’t already know it before today, I know it now: Tom died in vain. He and his comrades died brutal deaths in a conflict that did not have to take place. Even now, I watch the reports from Iraq: 250 people blown up last weekend on the streets of Baghdad in this war without end. Is this what our soldiers fought for?
- International Criminal Court Investigates Human Rights Abuses by British Forces in Iraq
  
  The long anticipated Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War released Wednesday contains stinging indictments of Britain’s role in the U.S.-led invasion, detailing failures starting with the exaggerated threat posed by Saddam Hussein through the disastrous lack of post-invasion planning. An element conspicuously missing from the report, however, are allegations of systemic abuse by British soldiers — accusations that are currently being considered by a domestic investigative body as well as the International Criminal Court (ICC).
  
  The claims center on alleged violations committed against Iraqis while held in detention by British soldiers between 2003 and 2008. Based on the receipt of a dossier outlining numerous incidents, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in 2014 reopened a preliminary examination into abuse allegations. The same examination, a step below an official investigation that could yield court cases at the Hague, had initially been closed in 2006 for lack of evidence.
  
  Presented to the court by the British firm Public Interest Lawyers and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human rights, the January communication was followed up by a second batch of cases in September of 2015, submitted by PIL. By November of last year, the ICC reported that it had received 1,268 allegations of ill treatment and unlawful killings committed by British forces. Of 259 alleged killings, 47 were said to have occurred when Iraqis were in UK custody.
- Take it from a whistleblower: Chilcot’s jigsaw puzzle is missing a few pieces
  
  Following the damning Chilcot report, much will be said about the decision to go to war in Iraq. But one thing will be missing: the information I leaked in the runup to the war. It won’t get an airing because I was never questioned or asked to participate in the Chilcot inquiry.
  
  Back in early 2003, Tony Blair was keen to secure UN backing for a resolution that would authorise the use of force against Iraq. I was a linguist and analyst at GCHQ when, on 31 Jan 2003, I, along with dozens of others in GCHQ, received an email from a senior official at the National Security Agency. It said the agency was “mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN security council (UNSC) members”, and that it wanted “the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises”.
  
  In other words, the US planned to use intercepted communications of the security council delegates. The focus of the “surge” was principally directed at the six swing nations then on the UNSC: Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan. The Chilcot report has eliminated any doubt that the goal of the war was regime change by military means. But that is what many people already suspected in 2003.
- Iraqis Want You To Know The Names Of Baghdad’s ISIS Victims
  
  The enormous toll of Saturday’s bombing in Baghdad has stunned even the war-weary residents of the Iraqi capital.
  
  At the end of a bloody week of attacks in Lebanon, Turkey and Bangladesh, a car bomb ripped through a crowded shopping center in Baghdad, igniting an inferno that raged all weekend.
  
  After days of sifting through the ashes, Iraq’s health ministry announced Tuesday that 250 people were confirmed killed. It was the deadliest car bomb attack since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
  
  At first, Sajad Jiyad, an Iraqi analyst living in Baghdad, felt numb after the attack and had “an intense feeling of déjà vu,” he wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. “Relatives, friends or someone I know have been killed or injured in every year since 2003,” Jiyad says.
  
  On Sunday, Jiyad learned that his friend, Ahmed Dia, was among the burned bodies pulled out of the mall, and his grief over the attack became searingly personal. “He was going to achieve so much, he should not be dead,” Jiyad writes.
  
  Some Iraqi activists have expressed an intense frustration and dismay that the names and stories of victims like Dia are little known outside of Iraq.
- The Baghdad Bombings, Islamic State and What America Still Hasn’t Learned
  
  The suicide bombings in Baghdad by Islamic State, timed for maximum violence, are only the latest reminders that the United States should not downplay the group.
  
  Since the wave of Islamic State suicide bombings in May – killing 522 people inside Baghdad, and 148 people inside Syria – American officials have downplayed the suicide bombing strategy as defensive. Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy in the fight against Islamic State, said the group “returned to suicide bombing” as the area under its control shrinks. The American strategy of focusing primarily on the “big picture” recapture of territory seems to push the suicide bombings to the side. “It’s their last card,” stated a compliant Iraqi spokesperson in response to the attacks.
- A New Fight Over Syria War Strategy
  
  President Obama has signaled a willingness to join Russia in going after Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria, but neocons and other hawks are fighting the policy shift, reports Gareth Porter.
- Are You Planning Your Retirement? Forget About It. You Won’t Survive To Experience It.
  
  At the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Conference, President Putin excoriated Western Journalists for endlessly repeating Washington’s lies that are driving the world to nuclear war. He asked Washington’s bought-and-paid-for-whores, the scum who comprise the Western news media: “How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction toward nuclear war?”
  
  Yes, indeed, how is it possible for the Western media to be totally blind? The answer to this question is that Americans live in the system of lies that comprise The Matrix, and media are paid to support the system of lies. The determining questions are: Can Americans escape their captivity in time to save life on earth? Do Americans have what it takes, or are Americans already a proven failed people who cower in ignorance under the threat of implausible “foreign threats”?
- NATO Marches Toward Destruction
  
  As the West’s elites growl about “Russian aggression” – as they once did about Iraq’s WMD – NATO leaders meet in Poland to plan a costly and dangerous new Cold War, while shunning the few voices of dissent, John V. Walsh warns.
- Time to Rethink NATO
  
  Formed in the early years of the Cold War, 1949, with the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, UK, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, by 1952 this post-WWII alliance included Greece and Turkey, and had rejected the Soviet Union’s request to join. In 1956, when West Germany was admitted to NATO membership, the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact in response and the Cold War was then on, full-blown. Missiles and nuclear weapons from each side pointed menacingly at each other, with the United States parking nuclear weapons in five NATO countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey), where they remain to this day. NATO doctrine provides that nuclear weapons will be used if necessary, at will, on behalf of all its members.
- Putin’s manoeuvres make man of peace Trudeau into warmonger against all his inclinations
  
  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made no secret his heart is set on taking Canadian soldiers to Africa, with perhaps a sideshow in Colombia.
  
  It is part of a grand strategy to burnish his reputation as a gentle agent of change, with the ultimate goal of winning Canada a temporary seat on the UN Security Council.
  
  That may not sound like much of an achievement — permanent members Washington, Beijing, Moscow, London and Paris all wield vetoes and shape global discourse on the council. But the seat in New York would be the crowning glory of Trudeau’s first term in office and proof Canada is back on the world stage — although the truth is Canada has not punched above its weight since a few years after the Second World War.
- Navy: SEAL Chris Kyle never earned a 2nd Silver Star
  
  The Navy has concluded there is no evidence that famed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle received two of the valor awards he had claimed in his best-selling memoir, including a second Silver Star.
  
  In an unusual move, the service has re-issued the DD-214 discharge paperwork to support the medals that the late Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Chris Kyle received during his 10-year Navy career, finding no records for two of six Bronze Stars with combat ‘V’ and the second Silver Star, two of which he had claimed in “American Sniper.” However, the renowned SEAL sniper had earned the Silver Star and four Bronze Stars, the review confirmed.
- Hillary’s Responsibility for the Libyan Disaster
  
  I am going to share with you four devastating emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton on the subject of Libya. You can find these posted at Wikileaks. It is clear in reading these exchanges that, in the glow of the fall of Qaddafi, Hillary embraced the call to spike the football and clearly was planning to use Libya as evidence of her leadership and skill that qualified her to become President.
  
  The attack on our diplomats and CIA officers in Benghazi on 11 September 2012 however, destroyed that dream. The dream became a nightmare and Hillary has scrambled to pretend that she was not the mover and shaker that destabilized Libya and made it a safehaven for ISIS aka radical Islamists.
- How the Dallas Police Used an Improvised Killer Robot to Take Down the Gunman
  
  Following the tragic deaths of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, during a rally for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile on Thursday night, the Dallas Police Department deployed a small robot designed to investigate and safely discharge explosives.
  
  Officers attached a bomb to the robot ad hoc style — detonating it and killing the sniper while keeping the investigators out of harm’s way.
  
  According to companies who manufacture bomb disposal robots interviewed by The Intercept — none were aware of their bots ever being turned into lethal weapons, though one company acknowledged the robots can be adapted to hold weapons.
- EXCLUSIVE: ‘Both lights were clearly on’ – Witness rubbishes police claim that black man whose death was streamed on Facebook had busted taillight on his car when he was pulled over
  
  Video filmed in the aftermath of Philando Castile’s fatal shooting has revealed that his car’s two tail-lights appear to have been working – despite police saying he was stopped because one was busted.
  
  Gregory Ford, 42, took multiple videos of Castile’s Oldsmobile Aurora after he arrived on the scene in Falcon Heights, Minnesota within the hour of the fatal shooting taking place.
  
  He had been taking a ride on his motorcycle after finishing work and happened to drive up Larpenteur Avenue.
  
  He told Daily Mail Online: ‘I got there after they had taken him [Castile] away about 9.50pm. There were roughly five other people there with me.’ Castile, 32, later died of multiple
Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- NSA Whistleblower: Clinton Emails Damaged U.S. National Security Much More than Manning, Assange Or Any Other Whistleblower
  
  FBI director Comey said today that Hillary Clinton running emails containing government information on an unsecured, private server was not as bad as former CIA director Petraeus sharing classified documents with his lover.
  
  But the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history, William Binney – the NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency and the NSA’s best-ever analyst and code-breaker, who mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened (“in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Union’s command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons”) – explains why Comey’s statement is nonsense.
  
  By way of background, recall that – when the American press reported that U.S. intelligence services tracked Bin Laden through his satellite phone – he stopping using that type of phone … so we could no longer easily track him.
- Appeals Court Says Government Email Stored On Private Servers Is Still Subject To FOIA Requests
  
  A recent decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals may not directly reference the Hillary Clinton email fiasco, but the conclusion reached set off irony detectors all over as it arrived the same day FBI director James Comey announced that Clinton’s private email server may have been a stupid idea, but not a criminally stupid one.
  
  There were indications that Clinton’s use of a private email address was an attempt to route around FOIA requests. As her server was being set up, communications from both her staff and the State Department’s noted that an account in her name existed already, but would be subject to FOIA requests.
  
  This has been a problem elsewhere. Several government officials have conducted an inordinate amount of government business using private email accounts or personal devices in hopes of skirting public records requests. The DC Circuit Court’s case deals with a little-known government agency, but an all-too-familiar dodge by public officials.
Finance
- The two Article 50 legal claims – the current details
  
  I believe the permanent injunction sought is so as to restrain the UK government from taking (or purporting to take) such a decision under the royal prerogative and/or making the notification under Article 50(2).
  
  The interim injunction sought is to have an order in place stopping the UK government taking (or purporting to take) a decision under the royal prerogative and/or making the notification under Article 50(2) until the High Court has dealt with the case.
- Hundreds of Thousands Call on Leader Pelosi to Block the Undemocratic TPP
  
  EFF has joined with partners including MoveOn, CREDO, Daily Kos, and Demand Progress to call on Democratic Party Leader Nancy Pelosi to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from going to a vote during the “lame duck” session of Congress following the November election.
  
  As we explained in a press conference yesterday, the TPP is simply bad for tech users and innovators: it exports the most onerous parts of U.S. copyright law and prevents the U.S. from improving them in the future, while failing to include the balancing provisions that work for users and innovators, such as fair use. Outside of these copyright provisions, it does nothing to safeguard the free and open Internet, by including phony provisions on net neutrality and encryption, trade secrets provisions that carry no exceptions for journalism or whistleblowing, and a simplistic ban on data localization that enabled the USTR to buy off big tech.
- You thought TTIP was dead? With Brexit we’ll get the same thing, on steroids
  
  It was a fallacy that withdrawing from the EU would save us from the corporate power grab symbolised by TTIP. This week we’ve discovered that not only might another massive EU trade deal be imposed on us before we Brexit, but our whole trade strategy could be handed over to big finance, egged on by true believers in the free market within the Tory party.
- After Brexit, Achieving Trade Justice For All
  
  We can and must build a radically different trade agenda that serves ordinary working people in the UK and the wider world.
- Supreme Court Eliminates Political Corruption! (By Defining It Out of Existence)
  
  Three out of four Americans think government corruption is widespread. Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president in part by claiming he couldn’t be bought. Bernie Sanders almost grabbed the Democratic nomination away from one of the most famous and powerful people on earth by decrying the influence of big money.
  
  Yet by overturning the bribery conviction of Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia, the Supreme Court this week just extended its incredible run of decisions driven by the concern that America has too many restrictions on money in politics.
Censorship/Free Speech
- Facebook ‘glitch’ that deleted the Philando Castile shooting vid: It was the police – sources
  
  The deadly shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile by a cop during a routine traffic stop in Minnesota on Wednesday just got murkier.
  
  Multiple sources have told The Register that police removed video footage of Castile’s death from Facebook, potentially tampering with evidence.
  
  Castile, his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter were pulled over by police in the Falcon Heights suburb of Minneapolis for a broken tail light. Using her cellphone and Facebook Live, Reynolds web-streamed footage of her dying boyfriend after he was shot by a police officer as he reached for his ID in his wallet. The video was mysteriously removed from her Facebook profile as it went viral across the internet.
  
  On Thursday, Facebook said a “technical glitch” caused the recording to be pulled from its social network. However, Reynolds claimed officers seized her phone and took over her Facebook account to delete the evidence.
- Censorship row rocks Bollywood
  
  A bitter dispute recently erupted in Bollywood over the very hard-handed—and some claim all too often unreasonable—censorship measures implemented by India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). On June 8, the producers of Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama revolving around drug abuse among teenagers in the northern Indian state of Punjab, filed a petition with the Mumbai High Court against CBFC for demanding 13 cuts to the film before it could be released on June 17. According to local media, the censorship board wanted all references to Punjab removed, including in the title. CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani was quoted in Indian newspapers as saying that although the film’s story and characters were fictitious, “the whole movie is [set in] Punjab and [the producers] have taken [place] names from Punjab. They need to make the cuts and take the [release] certificate.” Prior to going to court, one of the movie’s producers, Anurag Kashyap, on June 6 had tweeted that the CBFC’s stance was “akin to living in North Korea.”
- Lobby groups picket outside Icasa offices ahead of SABC censorship ruling
  
  A picket is underway outside Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) offices in Sandton as the body is expected to make a ruling on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) ban on broadcasting violent images at protests.
- SADC lawyers urge reversal of SABC’s news censorship
  
  SADC Lawyers Association says SABC must not follow in the footsteps of other broadcasters in failing democracies that have been used to prop up unpopular ruling elites.
  
  In a statement issued by SADCLA president Gilerto Caldeira Correia, the association stated that SABC must resist censorship.
- ‘Show real news, not SABC propaganda’
  
  The sound of vuvuzelas rang through the crisp winter air on Thursday as scores of people picketed while waiting for a decision to be made over alleged censorship at the SABC.
  
  The group had hoped that a verdict would be reached by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) rendering the public broadcaster’s decision to ban the airing of visuals of violent protests invalid.
- Icasa still deliberating on SABC matter
  
  The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is still deliberating on the SABC’s decision not to broadcast the destruction of public property during protests.
  
  Icasa’s complaints and compliance committee held a hearing into the decision two weeks ago. It’s discussing the recommendations behind closed doors.
  
  The complaint about the SABC’s protest ban was brought before the communication regulator by Media Monitoring Africa, the AIR support Public Broadcasting Coalition and the Freedom of Expression Institute.
- Sky’s network-level porn filters now “default on” for new UK customers
- Sky to switch on porn filter, by default, for new and existing users
- Sky has started blocking ALL porn by default, here’s what you need to know
- New Sky Broadband customers to have adult content filter turned on by default
- “Sky’s the limit” as it starts UK censorship of the Internet
- Sky Broadband Porn Filter Now Activated for All New Joiners
- Sky now blocking all porn
- Is Blocking Sex Selection Ads In India Internet Censorship?
  
  Once again, the issue of internet freedom is making headlines in India. After the country snubbed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for free basic connections over concerns it was at odds with the net’s open nature, India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday drew its own red lines, chastising a host of tech giants for failing to block advertisements for fetal sex testing and sex-selective abortions, both of which are illegal.
- Blockchain Social Platform Steemit Takes Advantage of Reddit’s Heavy Censorship
  
  Since the early days of the internet, there has been a constant movement of people, from mailing boards to Facebook and Reddit. Eternal September keeps chasing out the best who are then followed by the rest with the process now repeating.
- Facebook explains censorship policy for Live video
- Facebook clarifies Live video censorship guidelines in the wake of graphic video
- Facebook is not here to protect your freedom of speech
- The day that Facebook Live changed citizen journalism
- Fatal shooting of police officers is the latest act of violence streamed on Facebook Live
- After Shootings, Zuckerberg Champions ‘Open and Connected World’
- Facebook on graphic violence in Live videos: ‘Context and degree are everything’
Privacy/Surveillance
- Facebook Experiments With End To End Encryption In Messenger
- Silent Circle kills warrant canary; claims “business reasons”
- Silent Circle quietly kills warrant canary
- ‘Double speak’ squawk users as Silent Circle kills warrant canary
- Sorry Privacy Lovers, The Blackphone Is Flirting With Failure
- Silent Circle quietly throttles warrant canary
- Silent Circle: Blackphone developer removes warrant canary sparking fears of government snooping
- The truth about Silent Circle’s super-secure, hyper-privacy phones: No one’s buying them
- Don’t have a canary: Why Silent Circle dropped its warrant warning page
- Lawsuit reveals privacy-focused Blackphone was a sales flop
- Documents Reveal Severe Issues For Silent Circle & Blackphone
- Court papers show Silent Circle’s privacy-boosting Blackphone was an unmitigated sales disaster
- People aren’t buying privacy-focused smartphones
- Lawsuit reveals Silent Circle’s Blackphone business is a complete and utter mess
- Privacy-Focused Blackphone Isn’t Doing As Well As Expected
- Silent Circle’s Blackphone revealed as a sales flop – TechCrunch
- Geeksphone-Silent Circle suit reveals Blackphone sales flop
- Silent Circle’s ‘NSA-proof’ Blackphone flops with just 6,000 sold
- We know people care about privacy, so why won’t they pay for it?
- Value security and privacy? these are the phones for you
- Lawsuit Reveals Silent Circle’s Struggles: Nobody Is Buying Its Privacy-Focused Blackphone
- Blackphone 2 falls flat with only 6,000 units sold
- No one’s buying Silent Circle’s privacy-focused Blackphone
- Whether It’s Security Or Anything Else, If People Won’t Pay For It Then They Don’t Care About It
- Homeland Security Committee Thinks Backdoors Are Bad, But Encryption Still A Problem The Government Needs To Fix
  
  The House Homeland Security Committee has decided to weigh in on the encryption debate with the release of a report [PDF] entitled “Going Dark, Going Forward.” Despite the use of Comey’s pet term for the increasing deployment of encryption by service providers and device makers, the committee points out backdoors are a terrible way to address the problem.
  
  [...]
  
  It’s about as even-handed as one can expect from a committee that still believes there’s an “honest conversation” to be had about a subject FBI Director James Comey refuses to discuss honestly. It notes that most countries people consider to be free (mainly Western European) have shot down encryption backdoors, even in the wake of terrorist attacks. The countries where governments have demanded backdoors are no one’s idea of civil liberties paradises — like China and Iran. Presented this way, there’s a strong suggestion that the US government shouldn’t come down on the side of countries whose human rights records are, at best, highly questionable. That should help keep the conversation more “honest,” at least.
- Putin Says All Encryption Must Be Backdoored In Two Weeks
  
  A few weeks ago, we wrote about the push by the Russian Duma to pass a massive new surveillance bill that would mandate backdoors to encryption as well as massive data retention requirements for service providers, including saying that they need to store recordings of phone calls. As you may have heard, earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bill into law. And apparently to prove that he’s serious about all of this, Putin has also signed an executive order telling the FSB (the modern version of the KGB) to make sure it gets encryption keys to unlock everything within the next two weeks.
- Privacy Shield deal lets US tech firms transfer European customers’ data again
  
  Governments across the European Union have finally given the green light to a new deal on how consumer data must be transferred with the United States, ending months of delay caused by concern over US surveillance.
  
  Privacy Shield, the new commercial data transfer pact, was provisionally agreed by the EU and the US in February and will come into effect on Tuesday.
  
  The EU’s top court had struck down the previous data transfer agreement, Safe Harbour, on concerns about intrusive US surveillance – leaving companies, including Google, Facebook and MasterCard, in legal limbo.
- UK’s secret, ongoing mass surveillance rigorously frisked by watchdog
  
  Details of secret warrants used for mass surveillance in the UK and abroad have been revealed for the first time in an official new report.
  
  The Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office (IOCCO) has published an unprecedented review of mass surveillance carried out via Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984.
  
  The continued use of this relatively old piece of legislation to carry out large-scale spying was first avowed last year, when home secretary Theresa May told MPs that “successive governments have approved the security and intelligence agencies’ access to such communications data from communication service providers” using Section 94 of the Act.
  
  Unlimited power to require telecoms companies to do, or not do, anything, without any limit of time was granted to home secretaries under the law. The warrants are so secret that recipients are not allowed to mention their existence in any way, and they may even be forbidden from keeping copies.
  
  The IOCCO’s report reveals that 15 Section 94 “directions” for mass surveillance were given between 2001 and 2012, and that all of these remain in force. All of them are for traffic data—that is, metadata—and all require “regular feeds of bulk communications data to be disclosed.” Data is held for a year, and then automatically destroyed on a daily basis. Requests for the warrants came from GCHQ and MI5, but not MI6, and were made on the grounds of “national security.”
- How Facial Recognition Will Soon End Anonymity
  
  Nearly 250 million video surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the world, and chances are you’ve been seen by several of them today. Most people barely notice their presence anymore — on the streets, inside stores, and even within our homes. We accept the fact that we are constantly being recorded because we expect this to have virtually no impact on our lives. But this balance may soon be upended by advancements in facial recognition technology.
Civil Rights/Policing
- Two Days, Two Shootings, Two Sets Of Cops Making Recordings Disappear
  
  There are cameras everywhere. But when cops start shooting, it’s usually bullets and never footage. The first recordings that ever make their way to the public are those shot by bystanders. Anything else captured during a shooting remains under strict control of law enforcement… even when the recordings don’t belong to law enforcement.
- Unconstitutional: The One Word That Describes Alabama’s Attempts to Block Abortion Access Statewide
  
  The ACLU is suing the state of Alabama in an effort to stop two unconstitutional abortion restrictions from taking effect.
  
  The Supreme Court’s decision last week in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was a monumental victory for women.
  
  For years, extremist politicians around the country have done everything in their power to block a woman from obtaining an abortion, passing law after law designed to close down clinics or to shame, humiliate, and put barriers in the way of a woman trying to access reproductive healthcare services — more than 300 abortion restrictions since 2010 alone.
- EFF Takes on The Eleventh HOPE
  
  EFF staffers will spread the online freedom message at 2600 Magazine’s biennial Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference from July 22 to July 24. The Eleventh HOPE will take place at the historic Hotel Pennsylvania in New York and host numerous presentations on such diverse topics as automobile software hacking, pervasive surveillance, the blockchain, and fostering community.
- One Simple Change to the Law Could Make Prosecuting Killer Cops Easier
  
  Graphic video illustrating gruesome police killings of African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota has set off promises of a federal investigation, at least in the former case, but many are skeptical that it will lead to any prosecutions.
  
  Police involved in even these high-profile cases of abuse have rarely faced successful indictments, let alone prosecutions.
  
  However, at the federal level, a simple change to the law would make it more likely that abusive cops face punishment for their behavior.
  
  Currently, police abuse is subject largely to one federal statute enacted in 1866: Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 242, which punishes anyone who “willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
- Tweeted Photo Exposes Secret Islamophobic Plans of British PM Finalist
  
  The race to be the next leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, and hence prime minister of the United Kingdom, was whittled down to two candidates on Thursday: Theresa May, the home secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, deputy energy minister.
  
  As the two lawmakers with the most support from their colleagues, they will now spend the next two months trying to win the votes of the party’s members, a tiny portion of the British electorate thought to number less than 150,000. (In comparison, more than 33.5 million people voted in last month’s referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union.)
  
  While May has been a high-profile member of the government for the past six years, Leadsom is a relative newcomer, who was first elected to Parliament in 2010 after a career in banking.
  
  However, some clues about the kind of campaign Leadsom might run appear to have been accidentally made public on Thursday by a supporter who was spotted on the London underground studying what looked like notes laying out her strategy.
- Piecing Together Witness Accounts of the Dallas Attack
  
  In the immediate aftermath of the deadly attack on police officers at a protest march in Dallas that left at least five officers dead, social networks were flooded with witness accounts of what happened, in video clips and livestreams, photographs and text updates. The Intercept is assembling pieces of that mosaic here, starting with the accounts below, and will add more as we see them. Input from readers is welcome.
  
  [...]
  
  Before he died, according to the police chief: “The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
  
  The gunman also told officers that he had left improvised explosive devices for them to find. Brown said. “The suspect stated that he was not affiliated with any groups,” the police chief added, “and he stated that he did this alone.”
- Busted
  
  Tens of thousands of people every year are sent to jail based on the results of a $2 roadside drug test. Widespread evidence shows that these tests routinely produce false positives. Why are police departments and prosecutors still using them?
- System Failures
  
  The Houston cases shed light on a disturbing possibility: that wrongful convictions are most often not isolated acts of misconduct by the authorities but systemic breakdowns — among judges and prosecutors, defense lawyers and crime labs.
- Should A Court Allow A Case To Disappear Entirely Because The Person Regrets Filing It?
  
  We write about lots of nutty court cases around here, and semi-frequently, parties engaged in those lawsuits aren’t always happy about our coverage. Not too long ago, we received a series of emails and phone calls and more from an individual who was involved in some lawsuits that we covered. Without providing too many details at all, the individual in question made a pretty straightforward case that he or she absolutely regretted filing the lawsuits, and provided some additional information about why it had happened, while also noting that the Google searches on this person’s name were now linking to the few news stories that covered the lawsuit, including the court documents that we had posted. It was explained that these search results were making life difficult for this person who was trying to get his or her life back on track and believed that Google searches on the name were making it harder to find a job.
  
  The story was compelling, and we were asked to remove our post as well as the links to the documents, something that we won’t do. However, there was one intriguing bit to the communication, telling us that the court in question had “sealed the case” and asking us to respect that decision. That seemed odd to us. We’ve certainly seen filings sealed. And even some instances where almost all of the details in a docket were done under seal, but the case would still exist. Usually, though, those were cases involving at least a semi-plausible claim of national security. This was a case where someone just regretted filing questionable lawsuits (for a good reason). Even more amazing, after searching through PACER, it appeared that the judge in question did not just seal documents in the case, but made the entire case disappear. This happened for at least three cases. They do not exist in the court’s electronic records system at all. It is as if the cases never happened at all.
- Governor says Philando Castile wouldn’t have been shot if he was white
  
  A suburban police officer likely wouldn’t have shot dead a black motorist if he had been white, Minnesota’s governor has said, joining the national debate in the US over how law enforcement treats black people.
- Andrea Leadsom suggests she would make better PM as she has children
  
  Andrea Leadsom has suggested that she would be a better prime minister than her Conservative leadership contest rival Theresa May because she has children and May does not.
  
  In comments that were strongly denounced by some fellow Tories, Leadsom told the Times in an interview that being a mother was an advantage in the election because it showed that she had a “a very real stake” in the future of the country.
  
  Leadsom, an energy minister who has only emerged within the last week as a serious contender to replace David Cameron, said that she did not want to capitalise on May’s childlessness because to do so would be “really horrible”.
- Muslims face fines up to £8,000 for wearing burkas in Switzerland
  
  A controversial Swiss law prohibiting Islamic dress has been used to fine a Muslim convert and a businessman, who protested the ban.
  
  The rule, which came into effect in Ticino on Friday, was voted in by referendum and outlaws face-covering headgear.
  
  Nora Illi and Rachid Nekkaz, who are prominent campaigners for the rights of Muslims, walked in the streets of Locarno in full Islamic dress soon after the rule was introduced.
- Officials confirm Chelsea Manning has been hospitalized, lawyer says
  
  Lawyers for Chelsea Manning, the US soldier who covertly provided secret diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, are no longer in the dark about their client’s condition after several days of demanding information from military authorities on reports that Manning had been hospitalized.
  
  Manning, who is six years into a 35-year military prison sentence for revealing state secrets, alarmed her attorneys and outside contacts earlier this week when all contact stopped for at least 36 hours. The total loss of contact came on the heels of unconfirmed media reports that Manning had experienced a health crisis, and lawyers for the soldier railed against the defense department for keeping them in the dark while details of Manning’s medical status apparently leaked.
- When victims of tragedy go off script, media struggles
  
  Anyone who’s ever gone to the movies is accustomed to watching characters’ instant reaction to tragedy: Tears. Hysteria. Rage.
  
  Diamond Reynolds wasn’t in a movie.
  
  In her Facebook Live posting, viewed by more than 5 million people, she is relatively calm, polite and clearheaded as she speaks into her cellphone seconds after her boyfriend, Philando Castile, had been shot and killed by a Falcon Heights police officer during a traffic stop.
  
  The lack of immediate emotion — the tears would come 10 minutes later while her 4-year-old daughter comforted her — set off a fiery debate on the media’s role in interpreting such an intimate, and unexpected, testimonial.
- Philly PD Releases One Document About Its Fake Google Car: The Journalist’s Own Open Records Request Email
  
  Earlier this year, computer science professor and cryptography expert Matt Blaze happened across a Pennsylvania state-owned vehicle attempting to d/b/a a Google Street View… um, SUV. Taking that info, local reporter Dustin Slaughter dug deeper into the origins of that fake Google Street View vehicle.
- State Supreme Court Says ‘Smashmouth Journo’ Teri Buhl Must Go To Jail For Posting Teen’s Journal Pages
  
  Journalist Terri Buhl — who gained a bit of Techdirt infamy by claiming her public tweets couldn’t be republished (which led to wild claims of copyright infringement and defamation) — is still dealing with some legal woes of her own, stemming from the posting of someone else’s actually private information to Facebook.
Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
- Comcast Continues To Claim It’s ‘Not Feasible’ To Offer Its Programming To Third-Party Cable Boxes
  
  We’ve been talking a lot about how the FCC is pushing a new plan that would force cable providers to provide their programming to third-party hardware vendors. The idea is to put an end to the $21 billion in annual rental fees consumers have to pay for often outdated cable boxes and create some competition in the cable box space, resulting in better, cheaper hardware for everyone. Given it’s a hugely profitable monopoly and third-party boxes would be more likely to direct users to competing services, the cable industry has shelled out big bucks for misleading editorials and high test Congressional whining.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Trademarks
- Copyrights
  - AG Wathelet advises CJEU to hold French law on out-of-print books incompatible with EU law
    
    Among other things, this French law gives approved collecting societies the right to authorise the reproduction and the representation in digital form of out-of-print books, while allowing the authors of those books, or their successors in title, to oppose or put an end to that practice subject to certain conditions.
  - New Censorship and Copyright Restrictions in UK Digital Economy Bill
    
    This week a new Digital Economy Bill [PDF] has been tabled before the United Kingdom Parliament, tackling a diverse range of topics related to electronic communications infrastructure and services. Two of these give us serious concern, the first being a new regime restricting access to online pornography, and the other an expansion of criminal liability for copyright infringement.

]]> http://techrights.org/2016/07/09/skype-hype/feed/ 0 Links 13/11/2015: GNOME 3.18.2, New Kubuntu Release Managers http://techrights.org/2015/11/13/new-kubuntu-release-managers/ http://techrights.org/2015/11/13/new-kubuntu-release-managers/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2015 13:54:25 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=86195

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Get LPI certified, get a job – Linux skills in demand

With the meteoric rise in cloud computing, overwhelmingly dominated by Linux, the demand for Linux IT professionals, along with their salaries, has risen to all time highs, and the trend looks set to continue.

Cloud computing has changed the IT landscape forever and with it the skills that employers demand of IT professionals. No longer is it sufficient to know Windows or Cisco only. Whether you are just entering the labour market or a long-time Windows system administrator, you will need to master Linux if you wish to remain relevant.
Desktop
- Purism’s Librem 13 Linux Laptop Is Sleek, Private and Secure
  
  Purism began shipping the Librem 13 laptop last month. The Librem 15 started shipping this month November. Both laptops run a specially developed Linux OS with a kernel free of non-free software components.
  
  That homegrown refined Linux OS, dubbed PureOS, is designed to address user concerns about identity theft, Internet privacy, security and digital rights. It is the first high-end Linux laptop built on tailor-made hardware to ensure privacy and compliance with the Free Software Foundation’s endorsement, according to Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism Computer.
- Digital Migration: After 20 years with Windows, I am moving to Ubuntu
  
  On 30th September 2015, Kampala was host to two international ICT conferences. The International ICT BPO Conference took place at the Kampala Serena Hotel and attracted a wide variety of participants, ranging from students studying IT at the various Ugandan universities to visitors from faraway lands. Several delegates flew in that morning from Nairobi after the close of the Indo-Africa Expo the previous day. I was on the team of 15 Ugandans who attended the conference and exhibited at the expo, with support from the ITC NTF III project, and we flew back Tuesday night so that we could attend the conferences.
- Linux Foundation Training Prepares the International Space Station for Linux Migration
- GalliumOS Linux beta released for Chromebooks and Chromeboxes
  
  Chromebooks have long been big sellers on Amazon, and so have their desktop counterparts Chromeboxes. But now there’s a new Linux distribution called GalliumOS that promises to provide high performance and compatibility with these Chrome OS devices.
  
  Beta 1 of GalliumOS is now available to download. The GalliumOS wiki has install instructions and a hardware compatibility list.
Audiocasts/Shows
- Leaping Over Tumbleweed | LUP 118
Kernel Space
- XFS In Linux 4.4 Isn’t Too Exciting
  
  Dave Chinner has now sent in the XFS file-system updates for the Linux 4.4 kernel.
  
  The XFS file-system updates aren’t too exciting this round with only one major feature being the per-mount operation statistics that are exposed via sysfs. Other XFS changes for Linux 4.4 are various fixes, memory allocation failure message improvements, an fdsatasync optimization, and other random clean-ups.
- Collabora contributions to Linux Kernel 4.3
  
  Collabora developers contributed 48 patches to kernel 4.3 as part of our current projects.
  
  Danilo worked on the kernel doc scripts to add cross-reference links to html documentation and arguments documentation in struct body. While Sjoerd Simons fixed a clock definition in rockchip and a incorrect udelay usage for the stmmac phy reset delay.
- Linus Torvalds: Security in Itself Is Useless, Upside Is Always Somewhere Else
  
  Linus Torvalds always had strong opinions about hardening the Linux kernel from a security point of view and opposed some of the drastic changes proposed. In a recent interview, he explained why, in the end, kernel vulnerabilities are not all that bad as people make them be.
- How bad a boss is Linus Torvalds?
  
  The difference between the leaders at big proprietary software companies and Torvalds is that he says everything in the open for the whole world to see. The others do it in private conference rooms. I’ve heard people claim that Torvalds would be fired in their company. Nope. He’d be right where he is now: on top of his programming world.
  
  Oh, and there’s another difference. If you get, say, Larry Ellison mad at you, you can kiss your job goodbye. When you get Torvalds angry at your work, you’ll get yelled at in an email. That’s it.
- Are SJWs Trying to Frame Linux Creator Linus Torvalds With Fake Sexual Assault Charges?
  
  As I said, I don’t take this rumor seriously. But unconfirmed rumors don’t go viral without deep reasons. In this case, the reason is that Raymond’s post touched an open nerve. Unfortunately, there are more and more disturbing cases of political correctness run dangerously amok in the tech world. Last year, there was the ridiculous “bullshirtstorm.” A few months ago GitHub, the repository hosting service used by many open source software projects, proposed to adopt a code of conduct that explicitly endorsed “reverse” racism and sexism. The project was paused after a wave of outraged reactions, but interestingly Github never clearly admitted that the project is on hold.
- Solus Users Can Now Use and Test Linux Kernel 4.3
  
  The Solus operating system is moving along, and lots of upgrades are still being made every week. One of these upgrades involves pushing the latest version of the Linux kernel into the repositories so that users can test it properly.
- Linux Foundation Launches Open Source High-Performance Computing Group
  
  The Linux Foundation, along with industry and academic partners, plans to drive innovation in open source high-performance computing (HPC) through a new collaborative project, OpenHPC.
- High Performance Computing Leaders Unite to Develop Open Source Framework
- HPC Leaders Unite to Develop Open Source Framework
- Cray to Join OpenHPC Community
- Supercomputer leaders come together on new open-source framework
- The Linux Foundation Announces the OpenHPC Collaborative Project Initiative
  
  On November 12, the non-profit organization The Linux Foundation was proud to announce that they will attempt to create a new open source framework, called the OpenHPC Collaborative Project.
- Graphics Stack
  - Mesa 11.0.5 3D Graphics Library Patches Intel and Nouveau Video Drivers, More
    
    On November 11, Collabora’s Emil Velikov announced the immediate availability for download of the fifth maintenance release of the open-source Mesa 11.0 3D graphics library software for GNU/Linux operating systems.
  - AMDGPU PowerPlay Is Working Great So Far; Here’s An Ubuntu PowerPlay Kernel
  - AMD Publishes AMDGPU PowerPlay Support For Re-Clocking / Power Management
    
    AMD has finally published patches for providing preliminary PowerPlay support for the AMDGPU DRM driver, which will eventually replace the current DPM (Dynamic Power Management) support for Volcanic Islands hardware. This PowerPlay support comes with compatibility for Tonga, Fiji, and the rest of the VI line-up!
  - Radeon DDX Update Brings DRI3, DP 1.2 MST, Tear-Free
  - X.Org Developers’ Conference 2016 To Be Hosted In Finland
    
    The X.Org Foundation Board of Directors decided at yesterday’s bi-weekly board meeting to go ahead with a plan to host XDC2016 in Helsinki, Finland.
- Benchmarks
  - AMD Catalyst On Windows vs. Open-Source Radeon On Linux
    
    Here’s the third installment of our Windows vs. Linux OpenGL benchmarking this week… This is a look at how the AMD Catalyst closed-source driver on Windows compares to AMD’s latest open-source driver code on Linux.
    
    Following the Intel Skylake Graphics: Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu Linux Performance and NVIDIA OpenGL: Windows 10 Pro vs. Ubuntu Linux Benchmarks is now a fresh look at the cross-platform performance for AMD Radeon graphics cards. This testing today is with the closed-source driver on Windows 10 Pro x64 and the open-source driver on Ubuntu 15.10 Linux.
  - Are There Any Raspberry Pi 2 Benchmarks You’d Like To See?
    
    While the level of performance out of the Raspberry Pi devices have had me less than interested, I decided to finally pick up a Raspberry Pi 2 anyways for some benchmarking and testing of the VC4 DRM+Gallium3D driver stack.
Applications
- Top 7 open source terminal emulators
  
  Are you a system administrator, Linux power user, or just spend a lot of time at the command line? Then chances are, your choice of terminal emulator says something about you. Do you prefer something lightweight? Full of features and customizable options? Or do you just use the default which ships with your distribution?
- Never leave IRC again with ZNC
  
  IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is an online chat protocol that has existed since 1988. IRC is a network of large chat rooms. Each room lets members of a community talk with each other from all corners of the world. Those new to IRC may have used a web chat interface. Many users have an IRC client to connect to their favorite IRC networks and channels. After a while, you may notice some groups of users seem to always be in the channel, each time you connect. Are they really sitting in front of their computers with their IRC clients all day?
- VirtualBox 5.0.10 Adds Basic Support for X.Org Server 1.18, xHCI Controller Fixes
  
  Earlier today, November 10, Oracle has announced the release of a new maintenance version for its powerful, cross-platform, and open-source VirtualBox 5 virtualization software for all supported operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.
- Virtualbox 5.0.10 Comes With A Huge List Of Bug-Fixes
- MPlayer-Based MPV Video Player Reaches Version 0.13.0 with Multivolume Support
  
  The awesome folks behind the open-source and cross-platform MPV video player software have announced the release of MPV 0.13.0 for all supported operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
- Calibre 2.44 Released with Multiple Fixes and Improvements for Linux
  
  The Calibre eBook reader, editor, and converter has been upgraded to version 2.44. It’s not a major upgrade, but there are some interesting fixes, and one of them is quite important for Linux users.
- ImagePlay 6.0 Brings A Big List Of Changes
- Kid3 3.3.0 Has Been Released
  
  As you may know, Kid3 is a free, open-source, cross-platform application for tagging the following music file formats (similar to EasyTag): MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV and AIFF.
- Display Keystrokes In Your Screencasts With `Screenkey` (Fork)
  
  The latest Screenkey 0.8 also comes with various advanced features, such as placing the Screenkey window on top of an application (first screenshot below), command-line placement (these features require “slop”, which is not available in the official Ubuntu repositories but is available in the main WebUpd8 PPA and is installed automatically when you install Screenkey from our PPA) and more.
- Proprietary
  - Latest Vivaldi Web Browser Snapshot Improves Tab Closing, Fixes over 50 Bugs
    
    We’ve been informed by the folks from Vivaldi, the proprietary web browser based on the open-source Chromium project on which Google Chrome and Opera web browsers are also based, about the availability of the first Snapshot post-Beta.
  - Opera 34 Enters Beta with Turbo 2, Share Button on Mac OS X, MSE Audio Support
    
    Opera, through Aneta Reluga, has had the pleasure of announcing the promotion of the Opera 34 web browser to the Beta channel for all supported operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.
  - Opera 35 Web Browser Promoted to the Dev Channel, Promises Cool New Features
    
    Opera Software, through Błażej Kaźmierczak, announced earlier today, November 12, that they’ve promoted the upcoming Opera 35 web browser to the Developer channel for all supported operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
  - Opera Developer 35 Brings A Bunch Of Interesting New Features
- Instructionals/Technical
  - Install TWiki on a CentOS 7 VPS
  - How to do batch image processing on the Linux Destop with XnConvert
  - Install Calibre 2.44 (Open-Source E-book Management Software) on Linux
  - Install SOGo on a Debian 8 VPS
  - How To Fix Time Difference Between Ubuntu And Windows
    
    Recently LinuxAndUbuntu reader raised an issue that he was having with his dual boot. When he restarts from Ubuntu to Windows, the time in Windows changes. Here is why it happens and how you can fix it easily from Ubuntu.
  - Fix Large Black Borders Around Header Bar Apps With Some Themes In Ubuntu 15.10 (GTK 3.16)
    
    In Ubuntu 15.10 (which uses GTK 3.16), there’s a bug which causes some themes, like Numix, to have large black borders.
    
    This bug only occurs for applications that use header bars (client-side decorations) and it affects Ubuntu (with Unity), while Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu GNOME don’t seem to be affected (at least in my quick test). Update: MATE with Compiz enabled is also affected so I guess any desktop environment under which you use Compiz is affected (thanks to pawelp!).
  - How to access a Mac drive from a Windows or Linux system
  - How To Install LAMP Stack On openSUSE 42.1
  - How to record screencasts with recordMyDesktop
  - How to Install Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi
  - Basic masking in Kdenlive: a useful trick
  - systemd: Using the journal
  - How to set JAVA_HOME environment variable automatically on Linux
  - Install Rawtherapee 4.2 On Ubuntu
  - How To Install QupZilla 1.8.9 on Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems
  - Uget 2.0.3 (Download Manager) Is Now Available For All The Supported Ubuntu Systems Via PPA
  - The Art of Layout according to Scribus (I): Master Pages
  - How To Install FeedReader 1.2 Beta On Elementary OS 0.3 Freya
- Games
  - Football Manager 2016 Released For SteamOS / Linux
    
    Fooball Manager 2016 was released today by SEGA. Compared to the past where the Linux port came after the fact, Football Manager 2016 has seen a same-day release for Windows, OS X, and SteamOS/Linux.
  - Unreal Engine 4.10 Released!
  - Unreal Engine 4.10 Officially Released
    
    Epic Games has officially released Unreal Engine 4.10 today, which includes 53 improvements done by the community on GitHub along with a lot of other exciting in-house improvements.
  - Klei Entertainment Turns Ten and Celebrates with Huge Discounts on Steam
    
    Klei Entertainment is a studio that remarked itself with some pretty amazing games, and now they are celebrating their tenth anniversary with a massive sale on Steam.
  - Linux gaming Steam Machines finally ship
  - The 20 Essential Steam Machine Games
  - I’m a PC and Console Gamer, and I Don’t Want a Steam Machine
  - Alienware Steam Machine Provides a New Way to Enjoy PC Gaming Beginning Today
  - Steam Machine UK Buying Guide: The Best PC Gaming Consoles For Your Living Room
  - These Steam Machines Don’t Use SteamOS
  - Alienware Steam Machine and Steam Controller Review
  - Cyberpower launches Syber range of Steam Machines
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - Inside The Gnome Foundation
    
    In 2014, alot changed for both the Gnome desktop and the Foundation that supports it. There were reports of financial difficulty, and the continuing struggle to bring the new desktop up to functional parity with the previous desktop. But the Gnome team is winning the war. The latest releases have been well received and Gnome has just become the default desktop for Debian, a sure sign that its usability and functionality problems are in the past. The Foundation itself has been able to improve its financial situation, while at the same time helping lots of other projects beside the Gnome desktop we all love. We caught up with Karen Sandler, a member of Gnome’s board of directors, to find out where it all went right.
    
    This time last year, Karen was at the helm as Executive Director of the Gnome Foundation, having taken up the role in 2011. After she stepped down as Executive Director she put herself forward in the elections to the board of directors, and was elected to the board of seven with the most votes in the contest – a real affirmation of her leadership during what must have been some of the most challenging years at Gnome.
  - GNOME Shell 3.18.2 Fixes Full-Screen Animation Glitches, Wayland Issues
    
    The GNOME developers are working around the clock these days to release the second and last maintenance build for the stable GNOME 3.18 desktop environment. Therefore, there were many updates to GNOME’s core components and apps in the last few days.
  - GNOME 3.18.2
  - GNOME 3.18.2 Brings Bug Fixes & Translation Updates
    
    Matthias Clasen announced the release today of GNOME 3.18.2 while all feature development continues to be around the GNOME 3.19 series culminating with GNOME 3.20.
  - Cinnamon 2.8 Desktop Environment Gets New Bugfix Releases for GNU/Linux
    
    The Cinnamon 2.8.3 and 2.8.4 maintenance releases have been published this week on the official GitHub page of the acclaimed open-source desktop environment used in numerous GNU/Linux operating systems.
  - GNOME 3.18.2 Officially Released, the Devs Will Now Concentrate on GNOME 3.20
    
    Just a few moments ago, the GNOME Project, through Matthias Clasen, proudly announced the release of the second and last maintenance release for the stable GNOME 3.18 open-source desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems.
Distributions
- New Releases
  - VeltOS Forks Budgie Desktop, Original Developers Explain Why It’s Useless
    
    VeltOS is a new operating system that’s been in the works for a while now, and it has been announced as using a Budgie-based desktop. It seems that the developer didn’t like what Budgie was offering them and decided to fork it.
  - Calculate Linux Scratch 15 KDE released
    
    We are proud to announce a new release of Calculate Linux Scratch 15 featuring KDE 5, alias CLSK.
  - Calculate Linux Scratch 15 KDE Distro Brings KDE Goodness, Including Plasma 5.4.2
    
    Alexander Tratsevskiy, the lead developer and creator of the Russian Calculate Linux operating system has announced earlier today, November 12, that the his Calculate Linux Scratch 15 KDE distribution has been released, and it’s available for download.
  - Microsoft Active Directory Replacement, Samba 4 Directory Added in ClearOS 7.1.0
    
    ClearFoundation, through Peter Baldwin, has announced today, November 11, the release and immediate availability for download of the final build of the highly anticipated ClearOS 7.1.0 GNU/Linux operating system.
- Screenshots/Screencasts
  - Quirky 7.3 Screenshot Tour
  - ClearOS 7.1.0 Screenshot Tour
- Ballnux/SUSE
  - EXTON OpSuS KDE is the First GNU/Linux Distribution Based on openSUSE Leap 42.1
    
    We’ve been informed earlier by Arne Exton, the creator of numerous GNU/Linux distribution and Android-x86 operating systems, about the immediate availability of EXTON OpSuS Build 151112.
  - openSUSE Tumbleweed Gets Linux Kernel 4.3, Mozilla Firefox 42.0, and Btrfs Updates
    
    Douglas DeMaio of openSUSE announces today, November 12, that there’s a new snapshot available for users of the rolling-release openSUSE Tumbleweed GNU/Linux operating system.
  - openSUSE 13.1 Reaches End of Life on January 5, 2016, Update to openSUSE Leap 42.1
    
    Marcus Meissner of openSUSE informs users that the openSUSE 13.1 GNU/Linux operating system will reach the end of its life in approximately two months from the moment of writing this article, on January 5, 2016.
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat’s Buy Rating Reiterated at Mizuho (RHT)
    
    Mizuho restated their buy rating on shares of Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. Mizuho currently has a $88.00 price objective on the open-source software company’s stock.
  - 90 Percent of Respondents to Red Hat Survey Plan to Increase Mobile App Development Investments in 2016
    
    Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced results from a recent mobile maturity survey, which revealed that 90 percent of respondents anticipate increasing investment in mobile application development within the next 12 months. The 2015 Red Hat mobile maturity survey also finds that these same respondents predict their organization’s investment for mobile application development increasing at an average growth rate of 24 percent during the same period.
  - Insider Selling: Red Hat EVP Michael Cunningham Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock (RHT)
    
    Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) EVP Michael Cunningham sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.78, for a total value of $403,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 46,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,756,270. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.
  - Red Hat Insider: Automating IT with Ansible
    
    Perhaps the best moment was in Tokyo, during the OpenStack Summit. My team presented a brand new, and accurate, total cost of ownership (TCO) model for OpenStack. We developed and used it internally to understand how to lower the cost of an OpenStack private cloud, and we discovered that implementing IT automation can save millions of dollars at a certain scale. When the team connected the discovery with the acquisition of Ansible, we got a great reaction around the room.
  - 90 percent of Red Hat survey respondents plan to increase mobile app development investments in 2016
  - Red Hat Finds That Enterprises are Stepping Up Mobile App Development
    
    Is the enterprise market saturated with mobile technology and app development? Not yet, according to results from a new mobile maturity survey done by Red Hat, which revealed that 90 percent of respondents anticipate increasing investment in mobile application development within the next 12 months.
  - 10 inspirational books for open leadership principles
    
    Working the open source way always involves standing on the shoulders of giants. And in a recent interview with Business Insider, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst acknowledges the literary shoulders supporting The Open Organization, his own contribution to the growing field of books exploring open management and leadership principles.
  - Red Hat Is New IT Era ‘Winner’
  - Red Hat enhances containers across open hybrid cloud
  - Red Hat Adds Open Source Docker Container Features for the Enterprise
  - Red Hat Adds Open Source Docker Container Features for the Enterprise
  - Red Hat bridges business demands and IT delivery with new application platform and Linux container offerings
    
    Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today unveiled key enhancements to its comprehensive portfolio for developing and deploying enterprise-ready applications using Linux containers, OpenShift and Atomic. As more enterprises look to adopt container-based architectures for application workloads, Red Hat’s enhanced offerings enable the use of Docker-formatted Linux containers to create microservices-based applications and modernize traditional workloads – all benefiting from security features of a consistent foundation based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  - Containers, Red Hat & AWS – Bringing Security and Agility
    
    Not only did Duke University build a fast software delivery pipeline with RHEL and AWS, they also used technologies from those two sources to combat a DoS attack. Here’s their re:Invent 2015 presentation.
  - Amazon, Microsoft, Red Hat View Positive in Venture Capital Chatter, Says Deutsche
  - East Africa: Microsoft and Red Hat to Deliver New Standard for Enterprise Cloud Experiences
  - Cookie Lickers, Headless Chickens & Other Open Source Troublemakers
    
    Open source projects can attract toxic personality types — and well-meaning bad influences — along with other problems that can send them off in the wrong directions. Red Hat’s Dave Neary laid out some of the problems, and how to fix them, in a breezy talk here at the OPNFV Summit.
    
    “Some people with the best of intentions engage in behaviors that harm the community,” said Neary, a member of the open source and standards team at Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT) He added that he’s engaged in some of this non-productive behavior himself at times.
    
    Comms companies are increasingly participating in open source projects as they seek the agility and innovation required in the New IP economy. But they can encounter pitfalls along the way.
  - Fedora
    - Making Fedora GNOME your working system in less than an hour
      
      It is a very good question. Ultimately, Linux is Linux. The only difference is the time you spend on the setup and adjustment of the necessary components. And what you get as the result. Whether it’s clean system without a graphical environment, or a distribution with thousands of unnecessary packets. It is worth noting that the most of this article is built on the idea that I do not want to have arch + i3wm right now. Maybe later.
- Debian Family
  - Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, October 2015
    
    Like each month, here comes a report about the work of paid contributors to Debian LTS.
  - Debian Live Dead, Linux Ransomware & More…
    
    Larry’s away today, hiding beneath his tinfoil hat and hoping to escape the ravishes of Friday the thirteenth, so I was volunteered to write this week’s review. Sorry. Larry will return next week — as long as his astrologer says it’s safe.
    
    G’bye Debian Live: By now you’ve probably heard the news that evidently the Debian Live project is no more. This according to the project’s leader, Daniel Baumann, who posted An Abrupt End to Debian Live on the Debian website on Monday. According to him, the project was “hijacked by the Debian-cd and the Debian-installer teams.”
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu 15.10 Flavors : All New Features and Changes
        
        Here’s new features and changes in Ubuntu GNOME 15.10,Ubuntu MATE 15.10, Ubuntu Kylin 15.10, Kubuntu 15.10, Lubuntu 15.10 and Xubuntu 15.10.
      - Ubuntu Touch OTA-9 Is Open for Business, Developers Can Start Pushing Fixes
        
        We’re back with details about the upcoming Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 software update, as well as some initial information about the next update, the OTA-9, as Canonical’s Łukasz Zemczak sent in his daily report a few minutes ago.
      - Is That Ubuntu Touch or Ubuntu Desktop? The Answer Is Both
        
        The border between the mobile and the desktop Ubuntu platforms is getting blurry, and distinguishing which is which is now difficult, judging by a simple image. Convergence is happening, and it will be here much faster than people imagine.
      - Nominations to the 2015 Ubuntu Community Council
Devices/Embedded
- “Extreme rugged” Mini-ITX SBC runs Linux on Bay Trail
  
  Adlink’s Mini-ITX-BST-I SBC runs Linux on Intel Bay Trail SoCs, and offers 8GB RAM, dual GbE, and rich multimedia, plus MIL spec shake-and-bake ruggedness.
  
  Adlink says its “AmITX-BT-I” single board computer targets applications that demand high-level processing and graphics performance, along with low power consumption. The “Extreme Rugged” board joins an assortment of competing Bay Trail-based Mini-ITX SBCs including Habey’s MITX-6771 and MITX-6770, Aaeon’s EMB-BTx series, Axiomtek’s MANO842, DFI’s BT160, and Portwell’s WADE-8078. Adlink’s board appears to be unique among the pack in its MIL spec-level shock and vibration resistance (see table farther below), and support for -40 to 85°C operating environments. Presumably, meeting these specs requires the use of carefully designed thermal management solutions.
- Phones
  - Android
    - Android Wear gets cellular support, still needs to be paired with a phone
      
      Google has announced that Android Wear now supports cellular access. OEMs will now be able to pack cellular modems and SIM cards into a smartwatch, allowing them to access the Internet and make calls without the phone being nearby or needing a Wi-Fi connection. The first device with baked-in cellular access will be the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.
    - Android Marshmallow: 11 KILLER new features
      
      Every year, Google announces a slightly revised version of its mobile OS, but Android Marshmallow offers the biggest improvement in ages. Alongside bigger features such as Doze and Now on Tap, Android M – or Marshmallow – also introduces a range of less glamorous but important tweaks that add to the user experience.
    - Razer says it’s ‘doubling-down’ on Android and Forge TV
      
      Razer’s Android TV-powered Forge TV is no longer on sale through Google, but tonight the company tells Engadget it’s not giving up. According to a Razer representative, it’s “doubling-down on Android gaming in the living room and looking forward to producing the world’s largest library of Android TV games.” The company thinks Forge TV can be a “spiritual successor” to the Ouya platform it purchased earlier this year, and is ramping up production to address current demand. The note (included in full after the break) promises more information soon, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the gaming hardware maker bring something fresh to CES in January.
    - Google Test DPC Tool Now Available For Android For Work Developers
    - Samsung Galaxy S5 Active Updated at Android 5.1.1 Lollipop on AT&T
    - Moto X Android 6.0 Marshmallow Update Arrives
    - Watchphones are coming: Google updates Android Wear with cellular connectivity
    - Google Makes it Easier to Read Comics on Android Phones
    - Best Android Phones of 2015
      
      Those looking for a new Android smartphone have a lot of really good options as 2015 comes to a close. What makes a phone the best, or great, or even really good is all subjective and ultimately comes down to what users need the most. With that in mind, here we want to share our thoughts on the best Android phones of 2015, chosen by the staff at Gotta Be Mobile to help buyers choose the right phone.
    - Android Wear Review: 4G-Support FINALLY Confirmed
      
      Many were hoping that Android Wear would signal the true start of the smartwatch revolution, and while Google’s effort is easily the best we’ve seen so far in this particular field, there are issues that could prevent it from catching on in the way some have predicted.
    - BlackBerry Priv review: Android fixes the OS, but the hardware can’t compete
      
      From BlackBerry’s perspective, the company is in way better shape with the Priv than it was with any of its BB10 devices. It can’t stand up to the competitive Android smartphone market, but it is at least a livable smartphone that you could make do with. Maybe BlackBerry will convince some enterprise customers to buy a few Privs for their business, but for normal consumers, there is nothing compelling here. The Nexus 6P has better specs, a better camera, an aluminum body, and stock Android with updates direct from Google. It’s also $200 less than the Priv. There is still no reason to buy a BlackBerry.
    - This new Android phone is half the price of an iPhone and looks just as good
      
      It’s cheap, it works well, and it looks fantastic. The OnePlus X costs $249 and goes on sale Nov. 19. If you’re in the market for an Android phone that looks like it costs a lot more than it does, and can figure out how to get your hands on one, the OnePlus X is definitely worth considering.
    - Would you buy a flip or slider phone with Android?
      
      The rumor mill on Samsung’s next clamshell with Android, the Galaxy Golden 3, is in overdrive, as the flip leaked today from the Chinese certification agency TENAA, flaunting pretty great specs for what has been a nearly forgotten form factor.
    - Razer’s Android TV box quietly leaves Google’s store
    - Live from the Big Android BBQ Europe Keynote
    - Xposed Framework For Android Marshmallow Coming Soon, Promises Developer
    - LG Android Wear smartwatch makes calls even if users leave their phones behind
    - Google Reportedly Wants To Build Own Android Phones Without Help From OEMs
    - The Dark UI Side: Why People Love Dark Themes

Free Software/Open Source

HackerOne Names Open-Source Veteran Marten Mickos as CEO

Marten Mickos is a well-known technology executive in the open-source and cloud realms, but he’s less known—if known at all—in the security industry. That’s about to change, as bug bounty vendor HackerOne named Mickos its CEO today.

Mickos’ background includes stints as CEO of open-source database vendor MySQL, which Sun Microsystems acquired for $1 billion in 2008, and CEO of open-source cloud vendor Eucalyptus, which Hewlett-Packard acquired in 2014.
Security Outfit HackerOne Taps Former HP Exec Marten Mickos as CEO
This ex-HP exec sold his last two companies, and now he’s at it again
Hewlett-Packard Cloud Manager to Head Security Startup
From open source to open community: ex-MySQL and Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos signs on with HackerOne
HackerOne Snags Former HP Exec Mårten Mickos As CEO
Open Source Leader Marten Mickos Appointed CEO of HackerOne, Amid 400 Percent Year-Over-Year Customer Growth
Open-Source Superstar, Former HP Cloud Exec Mickos Takes CEO Post At HackerOne
Marten Mickos turns up at the helm of bug bounty platform HackerOne
Quant hedge fund manager ManAHL releases Arctic as open source project

By building Arctic on MongoDB, Man AHL realised a 40x cost saving when compared to the legacy time series data store. Processing performance improved by 25x. Man AHL is based in London, Hong Kong, Oxford and Pfäffikon, and has USD17.9 billion in assets under management as of September 2015.
Google Releases Machine Learning System TensorFlow Into Open Source Platform
Google eyes global leadership in machine learning
Google releases its artificial intelligence software into the wild
Google wants everyone to have access to its machine learning technology
Google seeks to influence AI research by giving software away
Google aims to build computer that mimics human brain
Google Offers TensorFlow As Open Source
Google Open Sources TensorFlow Artificial Intelligence Engine
Google Goes Open-Source for Machine Learning
Google releases TensorFlow, a machine learning system, under open license
Google Bets on Computers That Learn From Mistakes
Google TensorFlow Announced, Platform Can Become Its New Open-Source Brain
Google Is Making Machine Learning System TensorFlow Open-Source For Everyone
Google will open-source artificial intelligence, making TensorFlow internal AI software available free
An open source fan boy shares his story

Over time, I became much more sympathetic to the philosophical reasons for adopting FOSS. I was never hostile to it, I just hadn’t given it much thought. But looking back, it became clear that a large part of my success and enjoyment of my career was due to the opportunity to learn independently, taking things apart and putting them together.
Open Source Software and Corporations

An interesting post caught my eye this week entitled “Corporations and OSS Do Not Mix” by Ian Cordasco. It was kind of depressing – here was a person who had spent a lot of free time contributing to open source code, but the actions of some users of that code had taken the fun out of it.

My only issue with it was the targeting of “corporations” in the title. At OpenNMS we have a large number of corporate customers and we get along with them just fine. I want to talk about that in a bit, but first I want to address some of the other experiences Ian had that were similar to mine.
Yelp cooks up an open-source PaaSTA dish for developers

Business listings and review site Yelp has made a surprise contribution to the open-source software world by releasing an internal Docker and Apache Mesos-based platform-as-a-service to the Apache Software Foundation.

Yelp engineer Kyle Anderson provides a detailed look at the machinations of its custom-made PaaS, which it calls PaaSTA, in this blog post, describing in-depth how the different parts of the stack fit together.
Coreboot Adds CC6 To Improve AMD Power Savings

Added to Coreboot this week was CC6 support to provide greater power-savings for current-generation AMD processors.

Timothy Pearson of Raptor Engineering took on the challenge to implement CC6 support for Coreboot so there’s more competitive power-savings when using this free BIOS/UEFI implementation. He explained of the patch, “This patch adds CC6 power save support to the AMD Family 15h support code. As CC6 is a complex power saving state that relies heavily on CPU, northbridge, and southbridge cooperation, this patch alters significant amounts of code throughout the tree simultaneously. Allowing the CPU to enter CC6 allows the second level of turbo boost to be reached, and also provides significant power savings when the system is idle due to the complete core shutdown.”
Twisource: A lightweight, open source social media solution

In recent years, we’ve seen a boost in popularity of community-driven projects. Software and hardware development, social activities, crowdsourcing, manufacture, education—thousands of communities are growing and striving to achieve their goals. Creating a new community can be a difficult task, so the tools used in the process are very important.
Google’s release of TensorFlow could be a game-changer in the future of AI
Google’s release of TensorFlow could be a game-changer in the future of Artifical Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence Gives Photos New Life Online
Google releases its synthetic intelligence software program into the wild
Alphabet Simply Prolonged Its Synthetic Intelligence Attain
Google releases machine learning software TensorFlow to the open source community
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Google takes old Chrome versions on that long drive in the country
    
    Google has given Windows XP and old versions of Apple OS X their marching orders.
    
    Support for the ancient (in the case of XP) / no-longer-supported (OS X Mountain Lion and older) operating systems will end in April 2016.
- Mozilla
SaaS/Big Data
- Midokura’s Network Virtualization Technology Showcased at New QCT Cloud Solution Center in San Jose
- Akanda Grows OpenStack Networking with Project Astara [VIDEO]
  
  Software Defined Networking (SDN) vendor Akanda got its start in 2014 as a spin off from hosting vendor DreamHost. Now, in 2015, the company is powering forward as the lead sponsor of Project Astara, a new networking effort in the OpenStack cloud ecosystem.
- Hadoop is not the only fruit
  
  It is true, Hadoop is a key focal point for many of us when we talk about big data — and indeed, open source big data projects.
- Tesora Advances OpenStack Trove DBaaS Features for MySQL and PostgreSQL
  
  As the OpenStack cloud computing scene evolves, a whole ecosystem of tools is growing along with it. Tesora, the leading contributor to the OpenStack Trove open source project, came recently came out with an update of its OpenStack Trove database as a service (DBaaS) platform that simplifies management of 11 different database technologies. The Tesora DBaaS Platform Enterprise Edition when it was at version 1.5 built on the list of supported databases, adding CouchDB 1.6 and DB2 Express 10.5 databases, as well as an updated database version of Redis 3.0.
- Tesora Extends OpenStack Trove DBaaS Features for MySQL and PostgreSQL
- The Rise of the Open-Source Platform
  
  The success of closed-source companies (like Microsoft in the early days of the digital revolution) made it easy to write off open source as a niche movement with little real-world relevance. But the concept of open source is almost as old as software itself — it has been, and continues to be, a viable option.
Databases
- NoSQL: Injection vaccination for a new generation
  
  We are becoming more and more accustomed to reading about losses of online data through malicious hack attacks, accidents, and downright carelessness – it’s almost as if we don’t know how to secure data against the most common form of attack.
  
  Of course, that isn’t really true as best practice, legislation, and education on the matter are easy to come by, from a variety of sources.
- Open to the core: MongoDB’s enterprise push in ‘joins’ U-turn
  
  MongoDB grabbed headlines last week with the release of version 3.2 of its popular NoSQL database. Consistent with the company’s prescribed messaging, the tech media dutifully inserted “enterprise” into every headline, touting MongoDB’s new storage engines for better data security, among other things.
- Parallel Query Support Coming To PostgreSQL 9.6
  
  For PostgreSQL users, the next 9.6 release should be particularly exciting as the parallel sequential scan / parallel query support has been committed.
  
  This parallel sequential scan support has the ability to significantly improve the performance of selects on PostgreSQL databases. In one of the examples, a database select query dropped from taking 743 ms to now taking just 213 ms.
- PostgreSQL learns to walk and chew gum
  
  The open source PostgreSQL database is about to get query parallelisation, starting with just a few processes, and is looking for crash-test dummies to give it a whirl.
  
  Developer Robert Haas blogs that he worked with Amit Kapila over “several years” to get the feature working, and if things go well, he hopes to see the feature included in production code in PostgreSQL 9.6.
Business
- Semi-Open Source/Openwashing
  - Open-Source Food Tech Is The Future That Wil Change One’s Diet
    
    The director of the Open Agriculture Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Caleb Harper is currently working on creating sustainable food systems. This means the involvement of boxes where people can grow their crops and take control of the production of their food. It is quite impressive and revolutionary if you come to think of it, not to mention fairly easy and simple to do.
  - Microsoft rolls out open source toolkit for machine learning
  - Microsoft open-sources DMTK, a distributed machine learning library
BSD
- OpenMediaVault: NAS for everyone
  
  Despite being open source software, the most-popular NAS solution, FreeNAS, is at best only a cousin of the Linux operating system. It’s based on FreeBSD, uses the ZFS filesystem, and is more suitable for large-scale enterprise-wide deployments than the sort of home projects beloved of Linux users. If you’re a Linux user looking for a simple but effective tool for housing and managing data, the Debian-based OpenMediaVault (OMV) is a better bet.
- Initial 802.11n wireless support for iwm(4)
  
  Stefan Sperling (stsp@) writes in to the tech@ list with a great announcement for WiFi users..
- 2015 LLVM Developers’ Meeting Videos Published
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Your First GNU Radio Receiver with SDRPlay
  
  Although GRC (the GNU Radio Companion) uses the word radio, it is really a graphical tool for building DSP applications. In the last post, I showed you how you could experiment with it just by using a sound card (or even less). However, who can resist the lure of building an actual radio by dragging blocks around on a computer screen?
Project Releases
- db2twitter 0.2 released
  
  db2twitter 0.2 was just released! If you missed my last post about it, db2twitter automatically extracts fields from your database, use them to feed a template of tweet and send the tweet.
- CMake 3.4.0 Released
- CMake 3.4.0 Released!
  
  I am proud to announce that CMake 3.4.0 is now available for download at: https://cmake.org/download/
Public Services/Government
- How open source can bring agencies to the cloud
  
  With open source comes open standards and application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable the extensibility, interoperability and portability needed for federal agencies to meet higher expectations in launching new services quickly, adding infrastructure when needed and identifying new opportunities to engage citizens .The GSA and DOI examples represent a dramatic shift for the federal government as many agency innovators seek to employ agile methods and drive faster cloud adoption.
- Unwilling to fix what’s not broken, Asia firms hold back on open source
  
  Years after Linux and open source first emerged in the market, organisations in Asia remain unsure about the platform’s ability to support enterprise applications and are cautious about moving out of their proprietary software environment.
  
  “There’s a lot of misconception and also some inertia,” Damien Wong, Red Hat’s Asean senior director and general manager, said in an interview. “There are unfounded concerns about whether open source is enterprise-ready and mission-critical. These companies also see little reason to change and move to open source when their existing systems haven’t failed in the last five or 15 years.”
Licensing
- FCC: We aren’t banning DD-WRT on Wi-Fi routers
  
  Back in March, the FCC issued a Software Security Requirements document that said manufacturers applying for equipment authorizations should “Describe in detail how the device is protected from ‘flashing’ and the installation of third-party firmware such as DD-WRT.” Applicants also had to answer the question, “What prevents third parties from loading non-US versions of the software/firmware on the device?”
  
  Upon receiving criticism, the FCC insisted that there was no ban on software like DD-WRT and OpenWRT, saying instead manufacturers must prevent devices from working outside their allowed frequencies, types of modulation, and power levels so as not to interfere with other systems.
Openness/Sharing
- Open-source craft brewery to open in Toronto
  
  Two homebrewers are taking their passion for unique craft beers public to open Halo Brewery in the Junction Triangle this spring. The new space, located at 247 Wallace Avenue, will also function as a bottle shop and taproom – it’ll also be one of Canada’s first open-source breweries.
  
  “We’re going to provide full details of all our recipes including ingredients, quantities and process, along with any changes we make to them batch-to-batch,” says co-founder Eric Portelance via email.
- Transparency
  - eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020: EC opens online consultation
    
    The European Commission has opened an online consultation aimed at collecting information and points of views on the next 2016 – 2020 eGovernment Action Plan.
  - Transparency, sustainable development on the agenda of Mexico OGP Summit
  - Poland is among the least transparent countries in Europe
  - Germany hosts eParticipation workshop
- Open Hardware
  - Pocket Sized ORWL Open Source Secure PC Will Delete Your Data If Tampered With (video)
    
    Anyone looking to keep their data safe from prying eyes might be interested in a new open source computer named the ORWL which will automatically delete your data if the case is tampered with in any way.
  - Diyouware releases TwinTeeth Plus, metal upgrade for their open source PCB mini-factory/3D printer
  - Unseen Art open source platform allows visually impaired to enjoy 3D printed art
  - Unseen Art Is Crowdfunding An Open Source Platform To Make Fine Art Accessible Via 3D Printing
    
    Making art more accessible to blind and visually impaired people is founder Marc Dillon’s new mission. After almost a quarter century working in the mobile industry — latterly at alternative mobile OS maker, Jolla, from where he finally departed this fall — he says it’s time to give back.
Programming
- Scrum is dead: breaking down the new open development method
  
  A “snake oil salesmen” is a phrase that conjures up images of stuffy old men with bowler hats, bushy mustaches, and tailored pinstripe suits peddling bottles filled with “cure-all” liquids. Although prevalent a few centuries ago, the snake oil profession is now lost to the annals of history. These days the snake oil description has expanded beyond human health care. In the tech world, for example, a snake oil solution can be used to describe anti-virus software or a favorite software development process.
  
  Among the most “oversold as a cure” methodologies introduced to business development teams today is Scrum, which is one of several agile approaches to software development and introduced as a way to streamline the process. Scrum has become something of an intractable method, complete with its own holy text, the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, and daily devotions (a.k.a., Scrum meetings).
- PHP 7.0 RC7 Released, PHP 7 Final Gets Pushed Back
  
  While the highly anticipated PHP 7 release was supposed to happen today, it hasn’t as instead it’s been replaced by another release candidate.
  
  PHP 7.0 RC7 was released today rather than the official release. PHP 7.0 RC7 is the 12th pre-release of PHP7 and this newest version comes with seventeen bug fixes. Due to needing this unscheduled release candidate, PHP 7.0 final isn’t expected to come until 26 November. So for PHP developers in America, this could be a nice Thanksgiving release.
- PHP version 5.6.16RC1
- GCC 6 To Enable Intel’s MPX Library By Default
  
  Intel MPX support landed in time for GCC 5.0 but with it having landed close to release time, it was disabled by default. Now for the GCC 6 release in 2016, libmpx support will be enabled by default for all supported targets. This change was approved for landing this week ahead of the planned move of GCC’s code-base to stage three this weekend, which will mark the end of feature development.
- Six years of Go
  
  Six years ago the Go language was released as an open source project. Since then, more than 780 contributors have made over 30,000 commits to the project’s 22 repositories. The ecosystem continues to grow, with GitHub reporting more than 90,000 Go repositories. And, offline, we see new Go events and user groups pop up around the world with regularity.

Leftovers

Science
- Computer pioneer Gene Amdahl dies, aged 92
  
  Computer pioneer and entrepreneur Gene Amdahl has died, aged 92. Amdahl joined IBM in 1952 after graduating with a clutch of degrees from South Dakota State University and the University of Wisconsin.
  
  As chief architect of the IBM 704 scientific mainframe computer, his engineering decisions helped IBM to sell many more of the machines than IBM had expected.
Health/Nutrition
- EU whitewash on cancer risk from world’s most used weedkiller
  
  A report released today by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) could pave the way for EU re-approval of the world’s most used weedkiller – glyphosate – which has been linked to cancer by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report heavily relies on unpublished studies commissioned by glyphosate producers and dismisses published peer-reviewed evidence that glyphosate causes cancer, said Greenpeace.
Security
- The Lingering Mess from Default Insecurity
  
  These vulnerable devices tend to coalesce in distinct geographical pools with deeper pools in countries with more ISPs that shipped them direct to customers without modification. SEC Consult said it found heavy concentrations of the exposed Ubiquiti devices in Brazil (480,000), Thailand (170,000) and the United States (77,000).
  
  SEC Consult cautions that the actual number of vulnerable Ubiquiti systems may be closer to 1.1 million. Turns out, the devices ship with a cryptographic certificate embedded in the router’s built-in software (or “firmware”) that further weakens security on the devices and makes them trivial to discover on the open Internet. Indeed, the Censys Project, a scan-driven Internet search engine that allows anyone to quickly find hosts that use that certificate, shows exactly where each exposed router resides online.
- Public Beta: December 3, 2015
  
  Let’s Encrypt will enter Public Beta on December 3, 2015. Once we’ve entered Public Beta our systems will be open to anyone who would like to request a certificate. There will no longer be a requirement to sign up and wait for an invitation.
  
  Our Limited Beta started on September 12, 2015. We’ve issued over 11,000 certificates since then, and this operational experience has given us confidence that our systems are ready for an open Public Beta.
- Linux ransomware rising? Linux.Encoder.1 now infects thousands of websites [Ed: Tung hypes up already-patched Magento bug]
  
  The security firm said the ransomware was infecting Linux web servers by exploiting unpatched instances of the widely-used Magento CMS.
- Is Linux Free From Viruses And Malware?
  
  Linux is very secure in its architecture that you even won’t need to go behind any kind of firewalls until you’re on a Network. The access control Security Policy in Linux which is called SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) is a set of user-space tools and Kernel modification that implement the security policies in Linux operating system. Even this Security-Enhanced Linux isn’t must for normal users, however, it’s very important for users who are on Network and/or Administrators.
- Thursday’s security advisories
- Let’s Encrypt wants to use open source to simplify the security certificate process
  
  Infrequent web server administrators may find requesting and installing security certificates cumbersome and expensive. Open Source project Let’s Encrypt claims to simplify the process.
- Let’s Encrypt And WoSign – How To Get A Valid SSL Certificate Absolutely Free
  
  Today the SSL certificate costs ~$50-100 – big money for non-commercial websites and bloggers. But some peoples can change it just now. In this article I try to describe a practical guide for getting a free as a beer certificate for your blog, website or e-mail. There are two ways:
- Kaspersky says that Linux-Based DDoS Attacks are Increasing
  
  Out of all the DDoS attacks, 45.6% of attacks are from Linux-based botnets, as per the Intelligence Report of Kaspersky for the period Q3 2015. Security researchers of Akamai Technologies discovered that XOR DDoS botnet is the prominent most group, which was used to launch 150+ gigabit-per-second (Gbps) DDoS attacks.
- Twistlock Aims to Shore Up Container Security With New Offering
  
  There are multiple security controls and best practices for Docker container security, many of which are inherited from the Linux operating system on which Docker is deployed, including cgroups and namespaces, which provide isolation and control.
- How extorted e-mail provider got back online after crippling DDoS attack
  
  ProtonMail, the encrypted e-mail provider that buckled under crippling denial-of-service attacks even after it paid a $6,000 ransom, said it has finally recovered from the massive assaults seven days after they began.
- NSA-Proof ProtonMail Service DDoSed, Forced to Pay $6000 as Ransom
  
  The BBC reveals that the attack appears to have been carried out by Armada Collective, a Swiss group responsible for numerous other online attacks. It seems that ProtonMail now regrets its decisions to pay the ransom. The company says it would advise anyone else against doing so. It is now trying to raise money to pay more than $100,000 for DDoS protection from a commercial security firm.
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- West Papuans’ survival in the balance
  
  It’s believed that West Papuans are now a minority in their homeland, and many feel shut out of the economic expansion and democratic reforms Indonesia has experienced in the past decade.
  
  They see Jakarta’s rule as a threat to the survival of their people and culture.
  
  A separatist conflict has been simmering for decades, and the death toll is put in the hundreds of thousands by some estimates. Speaking out remains a dangerous activity in a place tightly-guarded by Indonesian military and police.
  
  But the new Indonesian government says it’s making real efforts to help Papuans improve their lives, and has begun allowing foreign journalists to visit and see for themselves.
- Russia says convicts former Moscow policeman of spying for CIA
  
  A former Moscow policeman was convicted of spying for the CIA and of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence agency on Thursday and sentenced to 13 years in prison, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement.
- Russian former policeman Yevgeny Chistov ‘spied for CIA’
  
  Russia has convicted a former policeman on high treason charges, accusing him of spying for the CIA, according to security services.
- Russian ex-cop sentenced to prison for ‘spying for CIA’
  
  Russia has sentenced a former policeman to 13 years in prison on high treason charges, accusing him of spying for the CIA, the security service said today.
  
  The Moscow District Court today convicted a former employee of the interior ministry’s Moscow region branch, Yevgeny Chistov, of high treason and sentenced him to 13 years in a high-security prison, the FSB security service said in a statement.
- Russian ex-policeman sentenced to 13 years in jail for passing classified data to CIA
  
  A Moscow region court has sentenced former police officer Yevgeny Chistov to 13 years in prison for passing classified information to the CIA, the public relations center of the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) told TASS.
- Death Threats, Child Porn, and War Crimes: Inside CIA Investigations of Its Own Employees
  
  Between January 2013 and May 2014, the OIG completed 111 investigations of alleged crimes, such as the killing of an animal on federal property, possession of child pornography, fraud, embezzlement, and domestic violence. The CIA is still processing VICE News’s FOIA request for a list of investigations the OIG completed between May 2014 and the present.
- US Won’t Recognize Israel’s Annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights
  
  Reacting to Monday’s comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House ruled out calls to formally recognize the Israeli occupation and subsequent annexation of the Golan Heights away from Syria, saying they weren’t sure if Netanyahu was even serious but that the US had no intention of changing its position on the occupation.
- Seventy-five percent of U.S. foreign military financing goes to two countries
  
  American taxpayers doled out $5.9 billion in foreign military financing in 2014, according to the government’s Foreign Assistance report — that’s roughly the GDP of Somalia. But where did the money go?
  
  To the usual suspects, mostly — Israel ($3.1B) and Egypt ($1.3B) received roughly 75% of all foreign military aid money handed out by the U.S. last year.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Climate Hustle: Marc Morano’s Latest Climate Change Denial Stunt
  
  Climate change denier Marc Morano of the fossil-fuel funded Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) will feature a new “documentary film” called “Climate Hustle” in his latest attempt to promote his destructive climate change denial agenda. The film is due to be shown to a public audience for the first time on December 7 at the Cinéma du Panthéon in Paris at the same time as the upcoming United Nations climate talks.
- Toxic smoke from palm oil fires is creating a new class of climate refugees in Southeast Asia
  
  Ria Heilena Pratiwi has had enough of the toxic smoke that plagues her hometown of Pekanbaru.
  
  The thick haze is caused by fires set to clear land for palm oil plantations and other uses. The city of around 900,000 is the capital of Riau province, on Sumatra island in Indonesia. A single mother between jobs, Pratiwi lives in Jakarta but had until recently been contemplating a move back home, so that her mother could help out with the childrearing. But now she’s decided to stay in Jakarta, and bring her mother there, away from the smoke.
  
  “From a long time ago, every year the haze comes again,” she tells Quartz. “So we decided to not live there anymore.”
Finance
- The fix is in: Proof that H-1B visa abuse is rampant
  
  Major outsourcers, largely based in India, are obtaining the lion’s share of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued each year and are paying salaries far below the prevailing wages for American IT workers — a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the H-1B rules. New information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that oversees the H-1B program, finally proves what critics have long suspected: H-1B abuse is real and rampant.
  
  The H-1B program is designed to let U.S. companies hire foreigners at prevailing wages when they can’t find qualified Americans. And U.S. companies, especially those in Silicon Valley, have been clamoring for years to raise the cap of 85,000 so that they can hire more foreign workers. They’ve long denied the charges that they’ve exaggerated the employee shortage, so they can instead reduce wages by importing workers.
- When Thomas Friedman Ridicules Campaign Economics, the Joke’s on Him
  
  The irony of Friedman’s comment is that Trump’s claim is not far from being true, if the United States were to adopt a more efficient healthcare system. The United States pays more than twice as much per person for its healthcare as other wealthy countries, with little obvious benefit in terms of outcomes.
  
  The World Bank put US annual per person spending at $9,150 in the years 2006-10. By comparison, Canada spends $5,700, Germany spends $5,000 and the United Kingdom spends $3,600. This enormous gap suggests that the United States could cover the uninsured and pay for it by eliminating the waste in its system.
- Trump Was Right About TPP Benefiting China
  
  Donald Trump lambasted the Trans-Pacific Partnership at Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate, contending that China would use it to “take advantage of everyone” — generating snickers from journalists and a withering refutation from Rand Paul, who said “we might want to point out that China is not part of this deal.”
  
  But Trump never suggested that China was part of the TPP, only that the country would “come in, as they always do, through the back door” of the agreement. And he was right.
- The First Bank in USA to Pay $15 Minimum Wage for All Employees Sees Immediate Benefits
- Bank Raises Its Minimum Wage To $15, Sees Immediate Benefits
  
  In August, New York-based Amalgamated Bank announced it would immediately raise its minimum pay to at least $15 an hour.
  
  At the time, the bank noted that it was the first to make such an announcement. But it’s also committed to making sure more follow its lead.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Charles Krauthammer Calls Out Donald Trump’s Lies About His Earlier Positions On Immigration
- O’Reilly And Donald Trump Repeatedly Use”Anchor Baby” Slur To Discuss Immigration
  
  Fox host Bill O’Reilly and GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump repeatedly used the pejorative “anchor baby” when discussing the children of immigrants in the U.S. This term has been described as “racist” and false because parents of children born in U.S. aren’t allowed to apply for citizenship until the child is 21.
- Reminder: The Right-Wing Media Vetted Obama, And It Was Priceless
  
  But here’s the thing: conservative commentators, and especially conservative bloggers, are ignoring the fact that Obama was vetted — by them. For more than two presidential election cycles.
  
  And it was priceless.
  
  Obama’s a Muslim. Obama was born in Kenya. Obama forged his birth certificate. Obama is the son of Malcolm X. Obama’s hiding his gay past.
  
  All of those claims, and much more, were forwarded by right-wing media outlets (including Fox News) that have been thrashing around in cesspools over the years, all in the name of vetting the elusive Obama. (The late blogger and satirist Al Weisel, known as Jon Swift, masterfully detailed the attempted vetting.)
- ’60 Minutes’ Pushes National Security Propaganda To Cast Snowden, Manning As Traitors
  
  The television program, “60 Minutes,” aired a segment on Sunday in which it assassinated the character of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and even went so far as to question their loyalty to America. The two whistleblowers were compared to the Washington Navy Yard shooter, who killed twelve people.
  
  It was part of an examination of what U.S. government officials perceive to be serious flaws in the process by which the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reviews security clearances granted to government employees, but the framing made it seem like architects of “insider threat” programs from U.S. security agencies and politicians, who support total surveillance of government employees in the workplace and while they’re at home, had produced the segment.
  
  Using language that would scare everyone’s grandparents, the CBS show used “fugitive” to describe Snowden, “convicted spy” to describe Manning (even though she is not), and “mass murderer” to describe the Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis. Anchor Scott Pelley amplified the terror by adding they all had “one thing in common: U.S. government security clearances which they turned into weapons.”
- Christians Are Leaving Homophobia Behind – Will Journalists Keep Up?
  
  But according to recent poling data, 54 percent of all Christians now say that “homosexuality should be accepted by society.” The data come from Pew’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, which surveyed more than 35,000 U.S. adults as a follow up to Pew’s 2007 study. Now, the majority of major Christian groups, including Catholics, mainline Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and historically black Protestants, believe homosexuality should be accepted by society…
- Watch A Black Community Activist Correct Bill O’Reilly On What African-Americans Need In Their Community
- Rush Limbaugh Says Students Protesting Racial Issues “Are Self-Identifying … As Racists”
- Fox News: Where Protests Against Racial Discrimination Are Anarchy But Armed Protests Against Federal Law Are “Patriotic”
  
  Fox News supports the right to protest, unless, it seems, the protesters are students of color shining a spotlight on incidents of racial injustice.
  
  Protests against racial discrimination on college campuses across the country are garnering national media attention with students criticizing administration responses to incidents at University of Missouri, Yale, U.C.L.A, University of Oklahoma and other institutions.
Censorship
- Corporations and Governments Are Still the Real Threats to Free Speech–Not Campus Activists
  
  Anyone who can write a sentence like this simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Which is fine, but not fine when the person is the head of an organization dedicated to freedom of expression.
  
  By “our citizenry,” Nossel is referring to the recent round of free speech wars on college campuses. Now, when these issues of free speech arise on campus, you usually see an explosion of conversation about it: on the campus itself, and in the media. Far from dampening down discussion, the controversy over free speech on campus actually ignites discussion. Everyone has an opinion, everyone voices it.
- Julian Assange addresses Freedom of Speech at the Union
  
  Mr Assange began his talk by making clear that he is “not on a TV” and that he was actively present, stating that engagement in debate and questions would make his presence more immediate. Hence, Assange opted to talk for twenty minutes and take questions from the floor. Assange discussed the fact that he had been present at the Union in 2011, and skirted around the topic of the referendum that the Union held on his address to begin with, stating “There is also an interesting contextual situation surrounding this talk itself” .
- Shadow Bans Not Banny Enough For Reddit
  
  In a move that isn’t particularly surprising given their lack of support for intellectual diversity to date, Reddit has introduced outright bans to replace its shadow banning policy.
- Center for American Progress Hosts Netanyahu as Leaked Emails Show Group Censored Staff on Israel
  
  The Center for American Progress, a leading progressive group with close ties to both President Obama and Hillary Clinton, held an event this week hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. That decision reportedly prompted a revolt from some staffers angered that a liberal group would give Netanyahu a platform. In his opening remarks at the event, Netanyahu told attendees he wanted to speak to “a progressive audience.” Netanyahu’s appearance came just days after a new controversy over the group’s alleged censoring of writers critical of Israel. Newly leaked emails from 2011 and 2012 published by The Intercept show CAP made key editorial decisions—including editing articles, silencing writers and backing off criticism—at the behest of influential groups who backed Israeli government policies. We speak to Ali Gharib, a contributor to The Nation magazine and a former staffer at the Center for American Progress. Gharib says one of his articles for the Center was censored.
- Google, Facebook on Chinese Charm Offensive
  
  Google terminated most of its operations in mainland China in 2010 after controversy over the country’s online controls and an attack on users of its Gmail service.
  
  But Eric Schmidt, its former CEO and now president of its new parent company Alphabet, was in Beijing last week declaring: “We never left China.”
- India Tops Facebook’s List Of Content Restriction Request By Government
- Facebook Inc Faces 18% Rise In Government Requests For Customer Data
- Facebook says governments demanding more and more user data
- These Are the Governments That Request (and Block) the Most Facebook Content
- Facebook sees global surge in law enforcement requests, censorship
  
  Facebook said on Wednesday that requests for user data from government agencies and law enforcement groups surged in the first half of 2015, with the social network site reporting an increase in demands by 18 percent worldwide.
- US, India governments top globally in sending censorship requests to Facebook
  
  Facebook has experienced a significant increase of information-seeking and censorship requests from national governments around the world, according to a new self-published report, with India ranking high on the list of nations making the most inquiries.
  
  Per the social media giant’s Government Requests Report, international queries for account data has ramped up in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period last year, from 34,946 requests to 41,214.
- Portage students complain about ‘censorship’ of play
  
  Members of the PHS Thespian Club told the Portage Township School Board that high school administrators ordered the Broadway play rewritten to remove references to drugs, cigarettes and sexual innuendo.
- Censorship and ethics in the Discourse section
  
  I spent a semester studying abroad in Beijing, China, where censorship by the government is rampant and dominates all form of media. There, armed with my Western ideas of how media should be, it was easy for me to criticize the government and its apparent inability to provide accurate news and information to its people. I thought I understood the premise behind the Chinese government’s heavy hand on free speech: obviously, the people in higher positions of authority were afraid of the instability that freedom of speech and press could create. For the semester I was there, I developed a skeptical and an almost comical point of view of the Chinese national media: how could I take a news source that so heavily distorts reality seriously?
- The Chinese are willing participants in state censorship
  
  For three decades, Cui Yongyuan has been one of China’s national treasures. As a veteran television presenter for CCTV (China’s BBC), Cui’s career was made by this state-controlled broadcaster. So his recent talk in London – entitled ‘An Idealist’s commitment and compromise’ – caught my attention for its political undertone. Could he have been talking about the compromises he had to make as a Chinese journalist? To my delight, Cui spoke about this – and more.
- China’s Censorship War Against Sex, Drugs, and ‘Vulgar Content’ Is Now Hitting Online Music Streams
  
  On Monday, the ministry issued a “notification on strengthening and improving the management of online music” policy, demanding that music services set up self-censorship departments to check their catalogs for deviant messages. State-owned news agency Xinhua, announced this, saying: “Online music should go through a strict reviewing process according to the requirement of the ministry before being made available online. The reviewing information should be filed in the provincial relevant departments or above.”
- Tunisia: Musicians confronted with censorship and repression
  
  Of Tunisia’s entire artistic community, the musicians – and in particular urban rappers – have borne the brunt of the state’s censorship and repression. A wide legal arsenal has been used to drag musicians into court and throw them unceremoniously into gaol.
- Journalism lecturers research shows how local papers dodged Kitchener’s draconian censorship laws
  
  Two journalism lecturers who have embarked on a four-year First World War research project which shows how local newspapers manoeuvred round Lord Kitchener’s draconian press censorship laws and produced articles that rivaled the war poets for powerful imagery.
- Salman Rushdie rails against censorship in accepting award
  
  Warming to his theme, Rushdie said universities should be refuges for the unfettered exchange of ideas. “The university is the place where young people should be challenged every day, where everything they know should be put into question, so that they can think and learn and grow up,” he said. “And the idea that they should be protected from ideas that they might not like is the opposite of what a university should be. It’s ideas that should be protected, the discussion of ideas that should be given a safe place. The university should be a safe space for the life of the mind. That’s what it’s for.”
- Salman Rushdie on writing, political correctness, censorship, First Amendment
  
  Here are excerpts from Rushdie’s comments:
  
  “If you are not a good writer, that’s not your fault — that’s just your problem. But if you are a self-censoring writer, that is your fault because then you are choosing to be a bad writer, and that’s to my mind not forgiven.”
- Inmates sue over prison magazine censorship
  
  A national newspaper for and about prison inmates is accusing the state Department of Corrections of censorship.
  
  The lawsuit filed in federal court contends top agency officials purposely and illegally withheld copies of Prison Legal News from inmates who subscribe. And even in situations where the newspaper eventually was delivered, portions had been redacted.
- Prisoners’ rights magazine sues Arizona Dept. of Corrections over censorship
  
  Prison Legal News, a 25-year-old magazine produced by the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center, has sued the Arizona Department of Corrections over censorship.
- Prisoners’ rights magazine sues Ariz. DOC over censorship
- Arizona lawsuit says prisons denied and censored inmates’ access to news
- Publisher sues Arizona state prisons over alleged censorship
- Artist Ai Weiwei adds to protest with Instagram LEGO portraits
- Lego shouldn’t brick it over Ai Weiwei – refuting the censorship argument is child’s play
- A Point of View: Why people shouldn’t feel the need to censor themselves
  
  We should remember, however, that offence can be taken even when it has not been given. There are radical feminists who search every innocent remark about women for the hidden sexist agenda. Even using the masculine pronoun in the grammatically sanctioned way, so as to refer indifferently to men and women, can cause offence and is now being banned on campuses all across America. It is not that you wish to give offence. But you are up against people who are expert in taking it, who have cultivated the art of taking offence over many years, and who are never more delighted than when some innocent man falls into the trap of speaking incorrectly.
- Modern Technology Prevents Media Censorship – Rossiya Segodnya Chief
  
  Widespread media censorship is rendered impossible by modern technology, Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency Director General Dmitry Kiselev said Tuesday.
- Missouri: professors against press freedom
  
  When students at one of the United States’ most prestigious universities throw tantrums in reaction to a call for debate, free-speech advocates who have long warned of the dangers posed by campus civility codes may be tempted simply to respond, ‘We rest our case’.
- Video: Ben Carson Decries College Campus Protests
- The Vilification of Student Activists at Yale
  
  The events at Yale over the past weeks have provoked a great deal of conversation, but little effort to understand or acknowledge the cultural and institutional biases at play. In their responses, many have made the same mistake that my friend did, assuming that individual actions can be divorced from their broader context, or from the larger and more troubling legacy of racial discrimination in America. But they can’t.
  
  [...]
  
  Like many elite schools, Yale has a tense racial past and present, one that ensures that admission isn’t necessarily synonymous with full social acceptance. The reports of recent incidents, like swastikas painted on campus, or a frat turning black girls away from a party, are surely only a few examples where some students are implicitly told that they are less welcome than their classmates.
- Serbia’s EU progress report: no progress for press freedom
  
  On 8 November Andrija Rodić, the owner of the Adria Media Group – which publishes 18 magazines including the daily tabloid Kurir – came out with a public apology to Serbian citizens for his role in producing overly favourable coverage of the situation in the country, alongside 80 per cent of Serbia’s other local media owners.
  
  Until that point he and his associated media outlets had been faithful supporters of Serbia’s Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, and his policies. In a blunt admission of the extent of political censorship in the Serbian media, Rodić described how threats to weaken his company financially or create fabricated legal cases led to the development of self-censorship among journalists.
- Turkey continues to muzzle democracy’s watchdogs
  
  Journalists are the “watchdogs” of democracy, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Anyone who wants to control a country without being troubled by criticism tries to muzzle reporters, and unfortunately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a past master at stifling the cries of freedom. As journalists from around the world converge on Antalya to cover this weekend’s Group of 20 summit, many of their Turkish colleagues are being denied accreditation.
  
  Sidelining opposition media has become a bad habit in Turkey, which is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. Four days before the Nov. 1 parliamentary elections, the police stormed Ipek Media Group headquarters and shut down its two opposition dailies and two opposition TV stations. After control of management had been secured and 71 journalists fired, these outlets resumed operations with a new editorial line verging on caricature. The dailies, Bugun and Millet, ran Erdogan’s photo on the front page along with the headlines “The president among the people” and “Turkey united.”
- Live Q&A: Indonesia, identity and the lasting legacy of 1965
  
  It’s been three weeks since a series of public debates dedicated to reconciliation and remembrance of the 1965 Communist repression in Indonesia were cancelled at the Ubud writers and readers festival in Bali, following police pressure and increased scrutiny from the Indonesian authorities.
Privacy
- The UK’s international snooping plan is probably going to end in failure, again
  
  The UK government is making a dramatic expansion of its internet surveillance efforts, in the space of less than 18 months trying to bring international tech companies firmly under the remit of its spy legislation.
  
  But the attempt is unlikely to succeed, like its other attempts to make overseas companies hand over their customers’ data and communications.
  
  Because millions in the UK now use services like Apple’s iMessage and Whatsapp — which are based outside of the UK and use strong encryption — the UK government says there is a large, and growing gap, in the ability of law enforcement to intercept and read communications.
- Why the attack on Tor matters
- Why the Tor attack matters
  
  Earlier today, Motherboard posted a court document filed in a prosecution against a Silk Road 2.0 user, indicating that the user had been de-anonymized on the Tor network thanks to research conducted by a “university-based research institute”.
- Court Docs Show a University Helped FBI Bust Silk Road 2, Child Porn Suspects
- Google Inbox Smart Reply: Cognition Meets Communication
- Google debuts smart reply feature to Inbox app
  
  Google is attempting to combat the issue of inbox clutter and unanswered messages with its new smart reply feature released this week to its new email app, Inbox.
- FCC Online Privacy Ruling Helps, not Hurts, Privacy-Minded Users
  
  The FCC has refused to order websites to protect users’ privacy in response to “do not track” requests — and that’s actually a good thing for people who want to stay anonymous online. Here’s why.
- Vizio Smart TVs Track Viewers’ Watching Habits To Work With Advertisers
  
  When choosing a smart television, buyers are often presented with a variety of features. One they may not be aware of: that TV could be watching you.
  
  Vizio Smart TVs, one of the most popular manufacturers, can track your viewing tendencies and report them to advertisers, as reported by ProPublica.
- Edward Snowden Explains How To Reclaim Your Privacy
  
  LAST MONTH, I met Edward Snowden in a hotel in central Moscow, just blocks away from Red Square. It was the first time we’d met in person; he first emailed me nearly two years earlier, and we eventually created an encrypted channel to journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, to whom Snowden would disclose overreaching mass surveillance by the National Security Agency and its British equivalent, GCHQ.
  
  This time around, Snowden’s anonymity was gone; the world knew who he was, much of what he’d leaked, and that he’d been living in exile in Moscow, where he’s been stranded ever since the State Department canceled his passport while he was en route to Latin America. His situation was more stable, the threats against him a bit easier to predict. So I approached my 2015 Snowden meeting with less paranoia than was warranted in 2013, and with a little more attention to physical security, since this time our communications would not be confined to the internet.
- The Poet, the Journalist, and the Dissident
  
  “I never thought that I would be Big Brother,” jokes Snowden as he is lowered down from the cloud and on to a projector screen. The crowd greets him like a rock star. He looks sheepish, perhaps overcome by the fervor of an audience in a country that he has no possibility of returning to under the present circumstances. On the stage to greet him is poet Ann Lauterbach and the Intercept’s Peter Maass. The dissident, the poet, and the journalist engaged in discussion at the penultimate talk of Bard College’s “Why Privacy Matters” conference held in October in the spirit of the college’s matron philosopher Hannah Arendt.
  
  Whether it is state-sponsored or corporate surveillance, or increasingly sousveillance, it seems privacy has become a relic of bygone days. In some sense, we have become unquestioning of this new reality of zero privacy put forth by government and corporate interests alike. But then I look up and see Snowden.
- Did the FBI pay Carnegie Mellon $1 million to identify and attack Tor users?
- Academics ‘Livid,’ ‘Concerned’ Over Allegations that CMU Helped FBI Attack Tor
  
  On Wednesday, Motherboard reported that a “university-based academic research institute” had been providing information to the FBI, leading to the identification of criminal suspects on the dark web.
  
  Circumstantial evidence pointed to Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Software Engineering Institute and an attack carried out against Tor last year. After the publication of Motherboard’s report, the Tor Project said it had learned that CMU was paid at least $1 million for the project.
  
  On Thursday, other academics who focus on the dark web and criminal marketplaces expressed anger and concern at CMU’s alleged behavior, feeling that the research broke ethical guidelines, and may have a knock-on effect on other research looking into this space.
- Tor director: FBI paid Carnegie Mellon $1M to break Tor, hand over IPs
  
  The head of the Tor Project has accused the FBI of paying Carnegie Mellon computer security researchers at least $1 million to de-anonymize Tor users and reveal their IP addresses as part of a large criminal investigation.
  
  Neither Carnegie Mellon officials nor the FBI immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment. If true, it would represent a highly unusual collaboration between computer security researchers and federal authorities.
  
  Ed Desautels, a spokesman for Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute, did not deny the accusations directly but told Wired: “I’d like to see the substantiation for their claim,” adding, “I’m not aware of any payment.”
- Snowden ‘overwhelmed’ by public response
  
  “I was really worried … that this would be a two day story, then everybody would forget about it and we’d move on.” he said during a video question and answer session hosted by the PEN American Center on Tuesday.
- Daniel Ellsberg And Edward Snowden: Two of A Kind
  
  Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg met in Moscow recently to exchange views on freedom of information and Snowden’s fate.
  
  Ellsberg is a welcome guest on any campus these days. In 1971, while a military analyst at the Rand Corporation, he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times.
  
  The two met last winter, ac
- What Clinton Got Wrong About Snowden
  
  The former secretary of state attacked the NSA whistleblower without bothering to get her facts straight.
  
  Hillary Clinton is wrong about Edward Snowden. Again.
  
  The presidential candidate and former secretary of state insisted during the recent Democratic debate that Snowden should have remained in the United States to voice his concerns about government spying on U.S. citizens. Instead, she claimed, he “endangered U.S. secrets by fleeing to Russia.”
- Google’s new About Me page helps you control how your personal info is shared
  
  People concerned about how much information is out there about them on Google have a new way to control what everyone can see.
  
  Without any fanfare, Google has begun rolling out an About Me page to make it easier for people to control what others can see about them across Google services.
  
  The page should be welcome news to people concerned about their privacy, according to Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research.
  
  “With this feature, there are no changes to what information people can see, but a way for people to better control what people can see about them across Google services in one place,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email to Computerworld.
- Comcast resets passwords after logins posted to dark web, but denies breach
- Comcast says it’s not to blame after 200,000 user accounts were put up for sale online
  
  Comcast will reset the passwords of roughly 200,000 customers after their account information wound up for sale on a shadowy Web site, the company said Monday.
- Barack Obama, Lawyer-in-Chief
  
  Why did a liberal professor embrace the Bush surveillance state? Look to the law.
- The real threats to Britain’s security
  
  Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “The Gulf states have appalling human rights records, particularly Saudi Arabia, yet they are always the key focus for UK arms sales. Despite the cancellation of the Saudi prison contract, and despite the horrors being unleashed on the people of Yemen by UK arms, there is growing talk of David Cameron visiting the regime to apologise and make up.”
- Science of snooping: Internet spying cost & feasibility examined by MPs
  
  MPs have launched an inquiry into the cost and feasibility of the government’s Investigatory Powers Bill.
- Former spy chiefs to meet financiers at Gleneagles
  
  The pair, who both left public office late last year, will address a “top-tier” audience of fund managers on the first evening of a high-profile conference sponsored by hedge funds and investment banks. Sawers is familiar with an audience of this kind, having delivered a keynote speech at a prestigious hedge fund summit in Paris in April.
- GCHQ says that British industry is bashed seven times a day by hackers
  
  We’re probably gonna need some bigger laws
- British spy agency GCHQ is advertising on trendy Shoreditch streets
- GCHQ Is Targeting London’s Tech Hipsters With Graffiti Recruitment Ads
- GCHQ goes all Cool Dad and tags the streets of Shoreditch with job ads
- GCHQ to lead £6.5m CyberInvest challenge
- GCHQ Boss: ‘Cyber Security Market is Failing Us’
- GCHQ chief claims that everything is failing cyber security
  
  Hannigan warned that the UK is under constant threat of cyber attack and that the authorities are in an arms race against the bad guys.
- GCHQ director blasts free market, says UK must be ‘sovereign cryptographic nation’
  
  Speaking this morning to CESG’s Information Assurance conference, Robert Hannigan, director of GCHQ, declared that Britain was a “sovereign cryptographic nation” and reproached the free market’s ability to provide adequate cybersecurity.
  
  The claim was delivered to a cybersecurity shindig attended by government employees and private professionals, arranged by GCHQ’s infosec arm CESG, as GCHQ’s head honcho pontificated upon the relationship between the market, regulation, and threats affecting the cyber domain.
- Ex-GCHQ chief: Bulk access to internet comms not same as mass surveillance
- NSA to end bulk call data collection this month
  
  The U.S. National Security Agency is ready to end later this month collecting Americans’ domestic call records in bulk and move to a more targeted system, meeting a legislative deadline imposed earlier this year, according to a government memo seen by Reuters.
- NSA mass data collection to stop in 20 days, but just on paper.
  
  As we have previously written the new CISA (Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act) allows this information to be passed along voluntarily with little to no recourse be the average citizen. All the NSA or other government agency has to do is quietly ask a company can hand the data over all in the name of National Security on the “Cyber” front (ASL?). This is not the first time that the US Government has tried to pass a bill like this one, but they finally managed to get one through. The claim is that this will help companies share threat information with each other, but the reality is that the law goes much deeper than that and is not really needed. Companies are already sharing threat data and indications of compromise without any fear of consumer backlash, so this bill really only serves the purpose to protect other data sharing. Russ Spitler, Vice President of Product Strategy at Alien Vault had this to say about CISA.
- The CIA writes like Lovecraft, Bureau of Prisons is like Stephen King, & NSA is like…
- It’s No Secret That The US Government Uses Zero Days For ‘Offence’
  
  Little by little, the US government is opening up about its use of computer security vulnerabilities. Last month, the NSA disclosed that it has historically “released more than 91% of vulnerabilities discovered in products that have gone through our internal review process and that are made and used in the United States.” There should probably be an asterisk or four accompanying that statement. But more on that in a minute. First, it’s worth examining why the government is being even the slightest bit forthcoming about this issue.
- The NSA is making great strides in transparency, but not really
  
  Until recently, the NSA has been able to do what it wants without having to explain anything to us, the little people. At the end of October, the agency published an infographic to tell us all exactly what they do (most of the time.)
- NSA Pats Self On Back For Disclosing Vulnerabilities ’90% Of The Time,’ Doesn’t Specify How Long It Uses Them Before Doing So
  
  The NSA likes its software vulnerabilities. There are those it discovers on its own and others it purchases from “weaponized software” dealers. There are also certain tech companies that hand over exploits to the NSA first before working on a patch for the rest of us.
  
  Up until now, the NSA really hasn’t discussed its policies regarding software vulnerabilities and exploits. A few months after the Snowden leaks began, the White House told the NSA to start informing software companies of any exploits/vulnerabilities it had discovered. The quasi-directive set no time limit for doing so and allowed the agency to withhold discovered exploits if there was a “clear national security or law enforcement” reason to do so.
  
  While other parties have discussed the NSA’s hoarding of software exploits, the agency itself hasn’t. All information gathered to date has come from outside sources. Snowden provided some of the documents. The EFF knocked a couple more loose with an FOIA lawsuit against James Clapper’s office.
- TRNN Replay: Whistleblower: Obama’s Secrecy Makes Bush Look Mild
  
  Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) is a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist, and whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that he ‘mishandled’ documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. His defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project.
- NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake: ‘I’ve had to create a whole new life’
  
  Five years after becoming the first American to be charged for espionage in nearly four decades, Thomas Drake is still trying to rebuild his life.
  
  In 2010, Drake, a senior executive with the National Security Agency from 2001 to 2008, was indicted by the Obama administration for leaking classified information under the Espionage Act after speaking out on secret mass surveillance programs, multibillion-dollar fraud and intelligence failures from 9/11. He was the first U.S. whistleblower to be charged under the Espionage Act since Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, and faced 35 years in prison before the government’s charges against him were ultimately dropped in 2011.
- How the media can support whistleblowers
  
  Can whistleblowers safely express concerns about their agency within internal channels? Do a whistleblower’s motives matter? Should the press focus on the leaker when reporting stories about the information they revealed?
  
  Edward Snowden — famous for his NSA data leaks — New York Times reporter James Risen and whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack tried to answer these questions using their own experiences at a Newseum forum Tuesday.
  
  “For all the whistleblowers I’ve worked with, for them, the press is the last resort,” Risen said. “They’ve tried and almost never found any real result from that internal system.”
  
  PEN America, a human-rights organization advocating for free speech, sponsored the event and released a report examining the channels whistleblowers have available, which showed why many concerned officials turn to the media to get their information out safely.
  
  Drake and Radack said they tried to work within the system to bring up their concerns with agency activities, but they suffered retaliation or superiors destroyed or redacted evidence they raised.
  
  Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the NSA, revealed multi-billion dollar fraud, failures with 9/11 intelligence and mass surveillance violations. The Obama Administration indicted Drake in 2010 and charged him with espionage. He went free in a plea deal in 2011.
- NSA whistleblower reveals details of American spying during Reddit AMA session
  
  Bill Binney, a former high-level intelligence officer in the NSA and later prominent whistleblower, has explained the inner workings of the security agency and its surveillance in a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session.
- A Former NSA Whistleblower Thinks Everyone in D.C. Should Be Fired
  
  NSA surveillance has been a hot topic ever since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the agency’s activities. But government employees were concerned about surveillance for a decade before Mr. Snowden came along.
- No software is ‘safe from surveillance’: Ex NSA official and whistleblower
  
  Not many know William Binney. He is a ex-NSA official and a whistleblower who helped another serial whistleblower, Edward Snowden leak thousands of classified NSA documents two years ago. He has not suffered like Edward Snowden who has suffered the ignominy of being fugitive and a wanted man in United States. Binney left US relatively unscathed after the NSA leaks.
- NSA whistleblower: No software is ‘safe from surveillance’
  
  William Binney doesn’t have a membership card to the small group of which he’s a part — people who have spoken out against the National Security Agency, and been left relatively unscathed — but at least he has the next best thing, a valid passport.
- NSA scrapping contentious phone spy program
  
  The National Security Agency will phase out its bulk surveillance program sweeping up Americans’ phone data to a more targeted system, marking a continued win for privacy activists.
- A Good American review: fascinating revelations about the NSA’s role in 9/11
  
  Despite the controversy over Edward Snowden’s revelations of US surveillance of its citizens, it’s easy to imagine the country’s security services privately not being that embarrassed: there might be professional pride in overzealous snooping.
  
  But such bodies’ role in 9/11 is another matter entirely. What if it could be shown that the NSA could have – should have – prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center; that its failure to do so wasn’t due to bad luck, but a lethal cocktail of incompetence, arrogance and greed; and that they then sought to cover up their mistakes?
  
  This possibility is the driver of a fascinating, conspiracy theorising documentary: Friedrich Moser’s A Good American, which premieres on Tuesday at the CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen. It may not have the contemporaneous frisson of Laura Poitras’s Oscar-winning Citizenfour, but it certainly packs a punch.
  
  The American of the title is William Binney, Bill to his friends, a crypto-mathematician and former NSA analyst, who devised a surveillance and analysis system that was cut-price, had built-in privacy protections, was up-and-running in 2000, and so dazzlingly effective that he claims it “absolutely would have prevented 9/11”, if only the agency hadn’t wilfully ignored it. The documentary doesn’t categorically prove the case – ironically for a film about data, we need to see some, or have more collaborations than are offered. Yet it does make us believe.
- Federal court to Obama: Stop spying on the American people
- NSA Given Permission by Appeals Court to Continue Collecting Metadata
- Appeals court allows NSA bulk phone spying to continue unabated
  
  The nation’s only successful challenge to the National Security Agency’s bulk telephone metadata surveillance program lasted just one day, as a federal appeals court is allowing the constitutionally suspect program to continue unabated.
- Appeals Court Says NSA Can Keep Trampling 4th Amendment With Phone Surveillance Program For Now
  
  This is hardly a surprise, but the DC Appeals Court has issued a stay on Judge Richard Leon’s ruling from earlier this week that the NSA’s bulk phone record collection program was unconstitutional. This is the same appeals court that overturned Leon’s earlier ruling finding the program unconstitutional. This time, as we noted, Judge Leon refused to grant the government a stay, noting that the DC Circuit had taken its sweet time in actually issuing a ruling on the appeal — and the program is set to end in a couple weeks anyway. Also, Leon didn’t order the entire program shut down, but just that the NSA stop keeping the records of the plaintiffs who were customers of Verizon Business Network Services (J.J. Little and J.J. Little & Associates).
- Appeals Court Allows NSA to Continue Metadata Collection
- Overnight Cybersecurity: Judge tells NSA to kill phone records program
- US Court Says NSA Phone Surveillance Program Illegal – Reports
- Judge curbs NSA’s collection of phone records
- U.S. judge again rules NSA collection of phone data is likely unconstitutional
- Judge: NSA Phone Surveillance Program Banned By Federal Judge
- Federal judge rules against part of NSA phone surveillance program
  
  A federal judge on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] against part of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) [official website] surveillance program that collects domestic phone records in bulk. Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] said that the program was most likely unconstitutional and shut down the program just weeks before the NSA was scheduled to scrap it and replace it.
- Feds to comply with court order in NSA case
- Judge Calls NSA Phone Data Collection Unconstitutional
- More impact from Snowden as court rules that NSA bulk phone record collection violates the Constitution
  
  Only weeks before the US Patriot Act will be replaced with the USA Freedom Act a federal judge ruled that National Security Agency (NSA) Bulk Telephone Metadata Program which was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 that systematically collects Americans’ domestic phone records in bulk “likely violates the Constitution.”
- Judge bars NSA from collecting plaintiff’s phone records in court challenge to
  
  A replacement program, adopted by Congress and scheduled to begin at the end of November, essentially has the telephone companies keep the records and give them to the government according to a protocol. This does not mean the agency will stop collecting phone data, however it will be a more target specific program.
- Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Share Close Financial Ties to Defense Industry
  
  According to research by MapLight, the 217 congressmen that voted against the amendment received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 people that voted for the amendment.
  
  Now joining us to unpack all this is Jay Costa. Jay is the program director of MapLight’s web and data projects. He previously served on San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, chairing the group’s Education, Outreach and Training Committee, and on Berkeley’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission and Open Government Commission.
Civil Rights
- Dear Idiots and Racists: Yik Yak Is a Bad Place to Make a Death Threat
  
  On Tuesday night, lines like this one appeared on the University of Missouri’s feed on Yik Yak, the location-based, hyperlocal social media app.
  
  “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see,” wrote an anonymous user.
  
  The anonymous post led to beefed up campus security on a campus embroiled in protest and turmoil. But that user didn’t remain anonymous for long. It’s hard stay anonymous when the company knows all of its users’ locations, and will ship that information to law enforcement, no questions asked. Messages like the one sent by Hunter M. Park, a 19-year-old from Missouri, who was arrested on Wednesday just hours after he allegedly posted these threats on Yik Yak.
- Veterans Benefits Administration executives abused incentive programs, bullied subordinates
  
  Senior executives within the Veterans Benefits Administration misused incentive programs to benefit themselves, an Inspector General report shows. Two officials went so far as to pressure subordinates into accepting unfavorable transfers to create vacancies for themselves.
  
  An anonymous source alerted authorities to one senior VBA executive’s $274,019 expenses for moving from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia, a distance of 140 miles, in October 2014. A subsequent Inspector General investigation has uncovered abuse of incentive systems within the Veterans Benefits Administration available to senior-level executives and has resulted in two requests for criminal prosecution to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia.
- Video shows South Boston police tasering Richmond man who later died
  
  Police in South Boston repeatedly fired their stun guns on a Richmond man before he died in 2013, a network news program revealed Wednesday.
  
  Accompanied by graphic videos of Linwood R. Lambert Jr. being taken into custody, repeatedly shocked at the doors of a hospital, and then slumping nearly unconscious in the back of a police vehicle, the MSNBC investigation apparently buttresses allegations raised in a $25 million suit filed this year by Lambert’s family.
- Driven to hospital, Virginia man tased, shackled and dies in police custody
  
  When three Virginia police officers put Linwood Lambert in a squad car around 5 a.m. on May 4, 2013, they said they were taking him to the ER for medical attention because he was speaking delusionally. Just over an hour later, Lambert died in police custody.
- Government threatens 40 years in jail; Matt DeHart forced into plea deal
  
  Matt DeHart’s long saga of government persecution, including FBI torture, refused asylum, and seized property, continues today as Matt has been cornered into taking a plea agreement to avoid a decades-long prison sentence. The deal, in which the government would recommend Matt be sentenced to a total of seven and a half years — minus his three and a half years of time served — was Matt’s only hope to prevent something even worse: the government’s initial recommendation of forty years in jail or the charges’ maximum, of seventy years and a half-million-dollar fine.
  
  Under the deal, Matt would have to plead guilty to receiving teen “pornography,” consisting of messages dated from 2008 that the US government decided to charge years later after they became aware that Matt discovered sensitive military files had been uploaded to a server he ran and that he was a WikiLeaks and Anonymous supporter.
  
  [...]
  
  Matt’s father, Paul DeHart, has cited Aaron Swartz’s case as a turning point in the family’s fear of egregious prosecution. Swartz committed suicide after facing more than 50 years in jail for rapidly downloading publicly available JSTOR documents. Similarly, in Matt’s case, the government threatened an extremely long prison sentence of several decades — a highly disproportionate sentence for the allegations against him.
  
  [...]
  
  Further, we have to prevent future retaliation, like the solitary confinement suffered by Barrett Brown, Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond. Matt has already been tortured during interrogation and imprisoned for years before trial. We must keep Matt’s sentencing in the public eye as only significant scrutiny will prevent further abuse and ensure as fair a trial as possible.
- Jack Straw and senior spy could avoid torture prosecution
  
  The former foreign secretary Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen, a former senior MI6 officer, could avoid prosecution over complicity in the rendition and torture of two Libyan dissidents by claiming immunity, the supreme court has been told.
  
  The extraordinary prospect of senior figures dodging their alleged liability for abductions and torture by deploying the “foreign act of state doctrine” in criminal proceedings emerged during a civil claim brought by Libyan and Pakistani former detainees.
- British citizens must stand up for the EU
  
  Cameron’s EU renegotiation may be too little too late for the Eurosceptics. The rise of their “Out” campaign threatens the livelihoods and social protection of thousands of UK citizens, writes Jude Kirton-Darling.
- As Things Stand, the EU Referendum Is on a Knife Edge
  
  As things stand, the referendum is on a knife edge, with our poll showing a three-point margin for remain. The vote is heavily conditioned by class and age: middle class people under 55 want to stay by 26 points while working class people over 55 want to leave by 34 points. It is a statistical tie among the older middle class and the younger working class. Among the general population, 13% are on one side or the other but open to changing their mind, and a further 12% don’t know either way.
- The Worst Company in the World
  
  Brazil’s Vale corporation masks brutal exploitation with the language of South-South solidarity.
- The Wrong Kind of October Revolution
  
  Another Cold War has started, strongly resembling the old one; but the old arsenal of ideology, like old weapons that were not maintained during a decade, have all oxidized and fallen out of use from indifference.
  
  [...]
  
  Viktor Orban in Hungary wins by promising to murder more gypsies and eventually the remaining Jews. Marine Lepen, new front-woman of the party for the ovens, openly anti-semitic and anti-Arab, grows more roots in France. Her solution to the refugee crisis is bacteriological and more eloquent than Trump’s: “let them have their ebola” she says, as her popularity sky-rockets.
- Obama backs $607 billion Pentagon bill that bars Guantanamo closing
  
  The White House indicated Tuesday that President Barack Obama will sign into law a Pentagon spending bill that significantly raises the base budget of the US war machine while prohibiting the shutdown of the prison camp at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba or the transfer of its detainees to US facilities.
  
  The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provides for a base Pentagon budget (excluding expenditures on active military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria) of $548 billion, larger than any year since the end of the Cold War.
  
  On top of the base budget, the funding bill includes $50.9 billion for “overseas contingency operations,” that will pay for ongoing military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, down from $64.2 billion in the last fiscal year. Together with a few smaller increments, this brings the total in military spending to $607 billion for the fiscal year that began October 1.
- Human rights lawyers in China tell harrowing stories about their own torture and abuse
  
  These personal accounts come to light at a crucial time: Next week, China will answer questions from a United Nations anti-torture committee at a conference in Geneva—the UN’s fifth probe into the country’s torture practices.
- Exposed: FBI Surveillance of School of the Americas Watch
  
  For a decade, the FBI flagrantly abused its counter-terrorism authority to conduct a widespread surveillance and monitoring operation of School of Americas Watch (SOAW), a nonviolent activist organization founded by pacifists with the aim of closing the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (now renamed) and ending the U.S. role in the militarization of Latin America.
- Alleged CIA Involvement In 2001 Anthrax Attacks
  
  By 2009 someone had uploaded a file to the shell, which is a server that I had operated the front-end of. Can’t really tell you the size of it. It had a text intro from an individual claiming to be a special agent for the FBI, he was explaining how the included documents pointed to CIA involvement in the Amerithrax case. It had an index, a file index which i skimmed through, it had PDFs, powerpoint files. The PDFs included scanned hand-written notes. Specifics which stood out to me, i mean I jotted some notes down before were technical nature of stuff like degraded Anthrax VS Brucellosis, degraded Anthrax VS Tularemia. There was nuclear regulatory commission paperwork tracking a radioactive cobalt source. From the handwritten notes, they thought that source was used to degrade or render inert weaponized anthrax. What else stood out to me.. it was the Ames strain of anthrax, and they said it was weaponized ‘electro-statically charged silicon nano particles’. That’s been burned into my memory
- British student fights extradition to US for allegedly hacking the FBI and Nasa
  
  Love expects that if he is forced into the American judicial system, things will go no differently for him. “It’s clearly problematic that as a direct consequence of there being insufficient evidence even to bring a charge in the UK, I am facing a fate that I consider worse than any possible sentence given in the UK. If I were ever taken to the USA and refused to plead guilty, that number would go up significantly, until it were many times larger than the number of years I have left to live.”
  
  He thinks the extradition case against him is being used by British law enforcement officials to pressure him into giving up evidence against himself and others. Love presents his case to a British court on 10 and 11 December.
  
  When I ask him how many years of jail he thinks he’d face, he replies: “It’s all academic. I will never go to America except in a bodybag.”
Intellectual Monopolies

]]> http://techrights.org/2015/11/13/new-kubuntu-release-managers/feed/ 0 Links 12/11/2015: Ubuntu Community Council Election, Fedora Goes for Wayland http://techrights.org/2015/11/12/fedora-goes-for-wayland/ http://techrights.org/2015/11/12/fedora-goes-for-wayland/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2015 12:48:29 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=86166

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Mycroft AI Will Help Us Talk with Our Linux Computers

It might sound weird to hear yourself talk with your computer, but that’s exactly where we’re going, and Mycroft is going to help us get there.
Desktop
- Do Linux users really need more powerful computers?
  
  Computers just keep getting more and more powerful as the years roll by, but at what point do Linux computers jump the shark in terms of hardware specs? A writer at Foss Force questions the constant focus on ever more powerful systems.
Server
- Google Offers Enhancements to Container Engine and Registry
  
  Now, Google has launched many enhancements to its container-focused cloud offerings designed to leverage new open source developments and boost the performance of its products in a hard fought cloud market. As of this week, Google Container Engine, which is based on the Kubernetes open source project that manages clusters and orchestrates Docker containers in Google’s cloud, now has the newest updates to Kubernetes.
- Rackspace Sees OpenStack Public Cloud Demand Slowing
  
  The key to running a profitable cloud business for Rackspace likely doesn’t rely on infrastructure but rather on support for multiple cloud infrastructures, including OpenStack.
Kernel Space
- Linux Kernel’s Kconfig xconfig Ported To Qt5
  
  It’s usually not worth mentioning Kconfig changes for each new Linux kernel release, but this time around there is actually new functionality to point out.
  
  With the Kconfig pull request for the Linux 4.4 kernel, running make xconfig to visually configure the kernel’s configuration options will now support using the Qt5 tool-kit.
- Linux Kernel 3.10.93 LTS Is a Small Release with Several Updated Drivers
- Linux Kernel 3.14.57 LTS Has Updated GPU and Wireless Drivers, Many Fixes
- Qualcomm Is Already Readying Open-Source Patches For Their Server Chips
  
  Last month Qualcomm announced they made big advancements with its server ecosystem by showing off a Server Development Platform with a 24-core ARMv8 SoC. This work is now being followed close behind with open-source enablement patches.
- [GIT PULL] kconfig changes for v4.4-rc1
- Graphics Stack
  - NVIDIA JTX1: Finally An Exciting 64-bit ARM Board!
    
    NVIDIA’s embargo has just expired on the Jetson TX1: a 64-bit ARM development board that’s worth getting excited about for Linux enthusiasts, those wishing to build their own ARM-powered devices, or just wanting a powerful ARM Linux desktop. The Jetson TX1 powered by the Tegra X1 is shaping up to be a splendid device; NVIDIA is even comparing the performance of the JTX1 to that of an Intel Core i7 6700K in certain tasks.
  - AMD R600g Catches Up With Another GL 4.3 Extension
  - Mesa 11.0.5 Adds Intel Skylake GT4 & AMD Stoney Support
  - [Mesa-announce] Mesa 11.0.5
    
    Mesa 11.0.5 is now available.
  - NVIDIA’s Brief Comment About Nouveau / Open-Source Drivers On Tegra
  - OpenGL 4.4′s ARB_clear_texture Hits Nouveau Drivers
    
    The open-source Nouveau Gallium3D drivers have tacked on support for another OpenGL 4.4 extension.
    
    Thanks to the continued work by Ilia Mirkin, Mesa 11.1 will have support in the NV50 and NVC0 Gallium3D drivers for the ARB_clear_texture extension. This extension was only made available today to Gallium3D drivers while previously this extension was supported by the classic Intel driver. The commit landing the Nouveau support is here.
- Benchmarks
  - 10-Way NVIDIA GeForce GTX OpenCL & CUDA Performance Benchmarks
    
    Mostly for reference purposes, I ran a variety of new and old OpenCL and CUDA open-source Linux benchmarks on ten different NVIDIA graphics cards. The cards included the entire range of GeForce GTX 900 “Maxwell” graphics cards as the latest-generation solutions along with several older GeForce GTX 600 and GTX 700 Kepler graphics cards. Tests were done from Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS on Linux 3.19 with CUDA 7.5 Tool-Kit and the NVIDIA 352.39 binary driver.
Applications
- Mutate 2.4 Brings Changes
  
  As you may know, Mutate is an open-source Linux Launcher developed in Qt 5, similar to Mac’s Alfred. Among others, it allows the users to easily search for their favorite files and applications. If the string you type does not match any file, it has an option for searching that information on Google or other search engine. Also, the launcher can be configured via the preferences menu.
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - Linux-friendly Steam Sale celebrates Valve’s big Steam Machine launch
    
    I know, I know: You’re busy with Fallout 4 and feel like you don’t need to buy another game for the rest of the year. You’re probably right. But but but…Steam Sale.
    
    Valve officially released its first batch of Steam Machines yesterday, as well as the Steam Controller and Steam Link. It was a big day for Valve, though it seems to have come and gone with considerably less fanfare than when the initial spate of preorders showed up in October. Again, blame Fallout. And probably StarCraft II, while you’re at it.
  - Alienware Interview Video About Their Steam Machine, SteamOS & The Future
    
    The one thing that made me really chuckle, was talk about performance. According to the Alienware rep there’s no performance “degradation” on SteamOS. We all know most ports perform worse than they do on Windows, so it’s marketing speak at its finest. Again, Vulkan is going to certainly help, as will Alienware/Valve and others talking directly to Nvidia/AMD/Intel to improve their drivers for OpenGL too.
  - KWAAN, A 2D Online RPG & Pixel Editor For SteamOS & Linux
  - Wyrmsun, A 2D RTS Game Inspired By The Classics, On SteamOS & Linux
  - Looks Like Road Redemption Is Finally On Its Way To Linux
    
    Road Redemption is the rather cool looking spiritual successor to Road Rash (an old love of mine), and it looks like it may come to Linux sometime soon.
  - The Steam Machines has arrived! And you should get one!
    
    So yesterday, the 10th of November, was the official launch day of the Steam Machines. The hardware are meant to be dedicated game machines for the living room taking advantage of the Steam ecosystem, to take on the Xbox One and PS4.
  - Steam Machines Comparison
    
    A Steam Machine is a PC for your living room. Play your games on your big screen TV while sitting comfortably on your sofa. Steam Machines run a Linux-based operating system called SteamOS and are controlled with a gamepad instead of a mouse and keyboard.
  - Steam Machine Launch Sale Brings Huge Discounts for 45 SteamOS and Linux Games
    
    Valve has officially launched its highly anticipated, Linux-powered Steam Machines gaming computers running the Debian-based SteamOS operating system in Big Picture mode, along with the Steam Link and Steam Controller devices.
  - Steam Machines launch: Steam Controller, Steam Link, and first 3 Valve-powered PCs release today
  - Valve’s first Steam Machines and controller have been officially released
  - Steam Hardware devices Go Retail
  - Geek deals: Quad-core Alienware Steam Machine for $650
  - Steam Machines and other hardware are now available
  - Steam Machines Technically Launched Today, Practically Delayed for Two Weeks
  - New Steam Client Stable Update Adds Big Picture Improvements to SteamOS and OSX
  - Unreal Engine 4.10 Released with Android 6.0 Marshmallow Support, SteamOS Fixes
    
    On November 11, Epic Games had the great pleasure of announcing the release and immediate availability for download of its brand new Unreal Engine 4.10 game engine software.
  - SteamOS Finally Gets Proper Filters to Sort by OS
    
    Valve has finally fixed one of the most annoying and ridiculous bugs that were present in the Steam client and implicitly on SteamOS.
  - Steam Machines in the News, New User Systems
    
    Steam Machines became available yesterday and folks are talking, including some from our own community. Elsewhere, Jon Gold ranks distributions on their newbie friendliness and Bruce Byfield discusses more on new user desktops. Ubuntu Community Council election approaches and Wayland is now default in Fedora Rawhide.
  - The State of Open Source Gaming on Linux
    
    This year has been particularly fruitful in its addition of ports from big names, but prior to the wave of ports that came recently, Linux and UNIX games were predominantly cloned or original games made by the community. Some of these sites are short on funding and require support to continue providing content. OpenGameArt’s founder, Bart Kelsey, has asked for funding to maintain the site in a campaign that is currently at 65 percent of it’s goal — and I urge you to support this and other projects connected with open source gaming.
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - KDE Ships Plasma 5.4.3, Bugfix Release for November
    
    Today KDE releases a bugfix update to Plasma 5, versioned 5.4.3. Plasma 5.4 was released in August with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.
  - Kubuntu: KDE 5.4.3 Bugfix release Available now in Wily Backports.
  - Kexi 3 object icons
  - KDE Applications 15.08.3 Full Log Page
  - wayland and libkscreen benchmarks
    
    My results show a speedup of between 2 and 2.5 times when querying screen information on X11 and on wayland, wayland being much faster here.
  - Kubuntu: KDE Applications 15.08.3 Bugfix release is ready for testing!
  - KDE Plasma 5.4.3 is now available for Kubuntu Wily (15.10)
    
    Packages for the release of KDE’s Plasma 5.4.3, bugfix Release for November, are available for Kubuntu 15.10. You can get them from the Kubuntu Backports PPA.
  - Kubuntu 15.10 Receives KDE Plasma 5.4.3, Coming Soon for Kubuntu 15.04 Too
    
    Well, that was fast! A few hours ago, Softpedia was the first to announce the release of KDE Plasma 5.4.3 desktop environment, which has apparently already landed in the Kubuntu Backports repository of Kubuntu 15.10.
  - KDE Plasma 5.4.3 Is the Last in the Series, KDE Plasma 5.5 Coming Soon
    
    A few moments ago, KDE, through Jonathan Riddell, had the great pleasure of announcing the general availability of the third and last maintenance release of the KDE Plasma 5.4 desktop environment.
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - Gnome: The next big thing
    
    GNOME 3 has come a long way since 3.0. When you compare what we have now to that initial 3.0 release, the difference is quite huge. Though it might look similar, the experience of using it has improved dramatically. This improvement is a major achievement, and has only happened thanks to the tireless efforts of the GNOME community.
Distributions
- Choosing a Linux Desktop for Beginners
  
  How do you choose a Linux desktop for beginners? The answer is more complicated than usually admitted. Besides ease of use, you should also think about first impressions, the quality of help, stability, and room to grow. These characteristics immediately eliminate distros like Gentoo or Slackware, but still leaves dozens of alternatives, none of which rate high in all these characteristics.
- New Releases
  - ClearOS 7.1.0 Released
    
    ClearOS 7.1.0 Final for all editions has arrived! ClearOS now comes in three different editions: Community, Home and Business. All editions can be installed from the same download ISO, but each edition provides a mix of apps, support and services to meet different needs. This release is the first in the ClearOS 7 series and provides major improvements and new features. ClearOS 7.1.0 introduces:
- Arch Family
  - Arch Linux 2015.11.01 Is Now Available for Download
    
    Yes, it’s that time of the month again when we have the great pleasure of informing you about the immediate availability for download of a new installation media for the lightweight and acclaimed Arch Linux operating system.
  - Running Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi 2 Has Never Been Easier with the RaspArch Live CD
    
    Coming from the developer who brought us the RaspEX and RaspAnd Live CDs, RaspArch aims to be a tool that lets anyone install the latest Arch Linux operating system on Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computers without too much hassle.
  - Second Preview of Manjaro Linux 15.12 Brings KDE Plasma 5.4.3, Linux Kernel 4.3
    
    The Manjaro development team, through Philip Müller, has announced the release and immediate availability for download and testing of the second Preview build for the upcoming Manjaro Linux 15.12 computer operating system.
  - RaspArch Live CD Helps You Install Arch Linux On Your Raspberry Pi 2
  - Arch Linux 2015.11.01 Is Now Based On Kernel 4.2.5
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat VP Paul Smith: Many Agencies Embrace Open-Source Tech Programs
    
    Some government and industry executives who presented at a Red Hat-sponsored forum Tuesday believe open source technology can drive ideas for development of other information technology platforms, Fedscoop reported Tuesday.
    
    Paul Smith, vice president and general manager of Red Hat’s public sector business, told audience at the company’s annual Government Symposium that many agencies are now turning to free source codes for innovation.
  - Go frictionless or become irrelevant: Red Hat exec
    
    MOST companies in Malaysia want to evolve and move their information technology (IT) towards becoming ‘frictionless,’ but do not know how to go about doing it, said a senior Red Hat Inc executive.
  - Linux 101: Get the most out of Systemd
    
    But why has Poettering received so much hate? Why does a man who simply develops open source software have to tolerate this amount of anger? Well, the answer lies in the importance of his software. Systemd is the first thing launched by the Linux kernel on most distributions now, and it serves many roles. It starts system services, handles logins, executes tasks at specified intervals, and much more. It’s growing all the time, and becoming something of a “base system” for Linux – providing all the plumbing tools needed to boot and maintain a distro.
  - FAQ: Systemd
    
    Surely the ‘d’ in Systemd is a typo?
    
    No – it’s a form of Unix notation used to signify a daemon.
  - How Red Hat Inc. Gained 10% in October
    
    For instance, the company announced the acquisition of software development and IT automation specialist Ansible near the middle of the month. That small but sensible tuck-in buy gives Red Hat another selling point for large-scale development and systems management clients.
  - Red Hat Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages (NYSE:RHT)
    
    Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirty-five analysts that are presently covering the company, AnalystRatingsNetwork.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $83.07.
  - Finally, Open-Source Model Paying Off For Red Hat
    
    But the Microsoft deal may have marked a watershed moment for the company, shares of which have struggled to regain past glory. The transaction sent Red Hat shares to a new high above 80 — a level not seen since those halcyon days a decade and a half ago when it topped 150 — and seemingly into a new era of prosperity.
  - A Closer Look At Microsoft And Red Hat Partnership
    
    Red Hat was conspicuous by its absence to the Azure party. Given that majority of the customers were running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for enterprise workloads, there was no direct migration path to Azure. Microsoft recommended CentOS and Oracle Linux – the two distributions that are highly compatible with RHEL – as alternatives. At the same time, RHEL was a first class citizen on Amazon EC2 allowing customers to bring their own license or pay by usage. Though it was possible to technically run RHEL on Azure, the customers didn’t prefer it due to lack of assurance from Red Hat. Microsoft approached Red Hat to bring RHEL to Azure, but it fell through due to the licensing and IP issues. The legal teams at both the ends could never come to a conclusion on the working model, which delayed the partnership by a few years.
  - Fedora
    - Fedora 23 Security Lab screenshots
      
      Fedora 23 Security Lab is Spin of Fedora, a Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat.
      
      Fedora spins are editions of the popular Linux distribution that use desktop environments other than that used on the main Fedora edition. That main (Fedora) edition uses the GNOME 3 desktop in its default form.
      
      As the name suggests, the Fedora Security Lab Spin is expressly for designed for security purposes.
    - Fedora 21 Reaches End of Life on December 1, Please Upgrade to Fedora 23 Now
      
      Today we’re informing our readers about the fact that Fedora Project and Red Hat will terminate support of the Fedora 21 Linux operating system starting with December 1, 2015.
    - Fedora 23 (GNOME) Review: Well, it’s Little Complicated
      
      Fedora 23 arrived a week later than originally planned, just like Fedora 22. While there are couple of Fedora spins, featuring popular desktop environments, for the past couple of days, I’ve been using the main release which is based on GNOME Shell (3.18).
      
      It’s true that GNOME 3.18 comes with many subtle refinements and features, but one of these features (a major one unfortunately) looked confusing to me, just like I find it difficult to cope with the default desktop layout of GNOME3, which is why I only use the ‘Classic Desktop Session’ as it resembles the old GNOME2 desktop (well, to a certain degree). Fedora 22 also had let go of one majorly useful utility (systemd’s ‘readahead’ component) and unfortunately, Fedora 23 too comes without it.
    - Schedule of Fedora 24 published
    - Fedora 23 Linux Server Has Been Released for IBM System z 64-Bit
      
      After announcing the release of the Fedora 23 Server and Cloud editions for ARM 64-bit (AArch64) and POWER (PPC64/PPC64el) hardware architectures, Fedora Project is proud to present Fedora 23 Server for IBM System z 64-Bit.
    - Fedora 23 Server for z Systems available now
      
      Fedora 23 Server for z Systems (i.e. the s390x architecture) is now released and available for download. This release provides the new features and updates in Fedora 23 Server, but built specifically for the s390x architecture.
    - wayland in rawhide
    - Wayland is default in Fedora Workstation Rawhide
      
      Fedora developer Ray Strode recently posted to the Fedora Developers list with the news that Wayland is now used by default when you log into GNOME with Fedora Workstation. Previously to try out Wayland with Workstation, there was an additional session in the login screen that allowed you to choose either login with Xorg or Wayland. This change is part of the much anticipated proposed Fedora 24 feature, Wayland by Default.
    - Fedora 23 Rawhide Uses Wayland As Default
      
      As you may know, the Red Hat developers have announced Wayland seven years ago, Wayland 1.0 being 3 years old already. Recently, Red Hat’s Ray Strode has announced that Fedora Rawhide will be using Wayland by default, all the needed configurations being already done in GNOME-Session, GDM, GNOME-Shell and Mutter. But it can be easily disabled via the /etc/gdm/custom.conf configuration file.
    - Fedora Rawhide Enables Wayland By Default, Where Supported
- Debian Family
  - Debian Live Is Dead, Developer Says His Project Got Hijacked by Debian-CD
    
    The Debian Live project is no more, and its leader announced that it had been absorbed by the debian-cd and the debian-installer teams, without his knowledge or approval.
  - Death of Debian Live, Fedora 24 Schedule, Opposing TPP
    
    Debian Live has been part of the Debian family for the last 10 years, but yesterday Daniel Baumann announced the end of the project citing internal deception. The Fedora 24 release schedule was highlighted and several reviews brag on Linux capabilities. Finally today, the Free Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Conservancy have posted their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
  - Installing Debian – a rock solid Linux distro
    
    If you are looking for a solid and stable operating system for your server or desktop, look no further Debian is your choice. Interesting fact about Debian is that it usually has 3 releases stable, testing and unstable. Eventually (after many tests) the “testing” release becomes stable and the “Unstable” becomes “testing”. This way Debian ensures its users receive a well tested, stable and reliable environment.
  - An abrupt End to Debian Live
    
    Before even more of reality is spin-doctored into some distorted view of it, and before my past work is being discredited, I will take the high road and continue my work on Debian Live images on the outside.
  - Derivatives
    - First Beta of antiX MX 15 Linux Distro Is Based on Debian 8.2, Still Uses SysVinit
      
      On November 8, the antiX development team announced the immediate availability for download and testing of the first Beta build of the upcoming antiX MX 15 GNU/Linux distribution.
      
      Based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 8.2 (Jessie) operating system and dubbed Fusion, antiX MX 15 Beta 1 is powered by Liquorix Linux 4.2 kernel for the 64-bit edition, as well as two stable Linux 3.16 kernels from Debian on the 32-bit flavor.
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu frees up drone design
      - Drones Are Getting A Lot Smarter
        
        The unit features a quad-core ARM Cortex A-15 processor with an NVIDIA Keplar-based GPU and runs Canonical’s Ubuntu OS with support for CUDA, OpenCV and ROS. The best part is it is compatible with third-party sensors allowing developers to really expand a drone’s toolkit. The benefit of having such a powerful computer on board means you can collect and analyze data in one shot, rather than relaying the raw output down to your control hub.
      - Canonical to Demonstrate Ubuntu Snappy Core on Samsung ARM IoT Hardware
        
        The Samsung ARTIK 5 and ARTIK 10 modules are not famous, but they are about to become famous. Canonical has big plans and wants to make snappy Ubuntu Core work on these platforms.
      - Ubuntu Touch OTA-8 Gets Prepared, Lands Next Week With Convergence Feature
        
        Earlier today, November 11, Canonical’s Łukasz Zemczak has sent an email to the Ubuntu Touch mailing list, informing everyone that the team is working around the clock to prepare the OTA-8 software update.
      - Community Council election [2015]
        
        [A]ll Ubuntu members are electing a new Community Council in the next two weeks. I started setting up the election in CIVS and will invite all eligible voters to it in a bit, so you all should receive an email about it.
      - Let’s End the Community Council Entrenchment
        
        2842789Let’s bring some change to the Community Council. A few of those running for Community Council have been on the council for years and not given up their seat to allow new ideas and fresh leadership to come to the council.
      - Intel Corporation and Qualcomm Inc Meet a Wild-Card Challenger in Drones
        
        DJI Innovations, the world’s largest consumer drone maker, recently introduced the Manifold, an embedded computer for drones that runs on Ubuntu Linux. The Manifold uses Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) Tegra K1 quad-core processor, which has 192 GPU cores, for real-time mapping, data analysis, and image recognition. The Manifold costs $499 and is compatible with the $3,299 Matrice 100 drone. This isn’t the first time Nvidia has used a Tegra K1 to guide a drone — at CES 2015 it did a similar demo with a drone from DJI’s rival Parrot.
      - Puppy Linux’s Sister Quirky Has Been Bitten by Ubuntu 15.10, the Wily Werewolf
        
        Barry Kauler, the father of Puppy Linux, one of the smallest and most lightweight GNU/Linux distributions ever created, on which numerous distros are based, has announced that Quirky Linux entered the “Werewolf” series of development.
      - Ubuntu Make 15.11.1 Has Been Released
      - Ubuntu Make Now Supports Netbeans IDE, Rust, Latest Unity Game Engine
        
        Didier Roche, the lead developer and creator of Ubuntu Make, has announced the immediate availability for download of Ubuntu Make 15.11.1 for all supported Ubuntu Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf).
Devices/Embedded
- Nvidia’s Jetson TX1 dev board is a “mobile supercomputer” for machine learning
  
  Nvidia is hoping to attract machine learning developers with the Jetson TX1, an ARM-based development board powered by the top-end Tegra X1 SoC. The company claims that in certain deep learning tasks that rely on dynamic input and computations—autonomous drones, facial recognition and behavioural analysis, and computer vision—the Jetson TX1 will beat out an Intel Core i7 6700K Skylake CPU in performance.
- Nvidia aims Jetson TX1 module at serious AI and robotics
  
  Nvidia has launched an AI and robotics oriented “Jetson TX1” module and development kit, based on an Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC running Linux.
  
  For its encore to the popular Jetson TK1 hacker and prototyping SBC based on the Cortex-A15 Tegra K1 SoC, Nvidia’s Jetson TX1 has moved to the 64-bit, Cortex-A57 Tegra X1 SoC. Nvidia has also split the product into separately available computer-on-module and COM/carrier development board products.
- Phones
  - Android
    - Hands-on with eight great Android Marshmallow features
      
      I recently upgraded my 2013 Nexus 7 to Marshmallow with an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade. While Google has no plans for a Nexus 7 2012 OTA upgrade, you can, contrary to most accounts, manually update the 2012 model to Android 6 (a.k.a. Marshmallow) using the nakasi and nakasig builds.
    - Android Marshmallow: 10 new KILLER features
      
      Whether you call it by its official title – Android Marshmallow – or opt for Android M, the latest version of Google’s mobile OS represents a huge upgrade.
      
      Android Lollipop was good, but Android M boasts a range of additional features, such as the intelligent Now on Tap and battery-saver Doze, that make it an even better operating system than its predecessor.
    - Europe Turns Antitrust Attention To Google Maps For Android
    - Brussels paws Android map apps to see if they displace Euro rivals – report
      
      The European Commission has reportedly widened the scope of its investigation into Google’s alleged anti-competitive Android operating system tactics in the 28-member-state bloc.
      
      According to Bloomberg, officials at the antitrust wing of the European Commission have fired off missives to companies seeking their views on whether Google Maps has superseded navigation services, such as TomTom and Nokia Oyj’s HERE product.
    - 10 reasons to oust Apple’s iPhone and invest in a Google Android smartphone right now
      
      The company’s Android software runs more smartphones than any of its rivals, appearing on eight out of 10 smartphones sold worldwide between April and June, according to IDC.
    - Android Wear 1.4 Reveals Some Future Secrets
      
      Android Wear, along with the Android Wear app, is quite new to the wearable tech space. Since its launch in March last year, Android Wear app has seen a few updates. The latest version is Android Wear 1.4 released by Google last week.
    - Android 5.1.1 OTA is seeding for the Samsung Galaxy E7
    - Now Android device modders get free core Cyanogen OS apps
    - Android Influencer: Tim Schofield’s YouTube channel is all about simplifying Android
    - New study finds that iPhones are actually more vulnerable than Android phones
    - HTC One M9 Android 6.0 Update Release Nears
    - How to see automatically back up your apps in Android 6.0 Marshmallow
    - Razer’s Android TV box ceases sales after just six months
    - iOS vs Android Market Share News: Android 6.0 Marshmallow Trails Behind Massive iOS 9 Adoption
    - Google considers building its own Android phone
      
      Starting from its operating system, then its processor to device design, Google now wants to handle everything on its own. In an attempt to make Android more competitive with Apple, which has complete control over its software and hardware for iOS devices, the internet giant is again debating the idea of building an Android phone, unlike the Nexus models, which are co-developed by its manufacturing partners.
    - Android vs iOS: Facebook Asking Staff To Ditch iPhone for Android Smartphones
      
      Recent reports revealed that giant social media company Facebook has been asking and urging its staff to ditch their iPhone devices and shift towards using Android smartphones. The recent policy comes after reports of Android’s dominance in the market.
    - Android is Transformed
      
      In the fourth part of our Android History series, we’ll track the progress of Android through its most transformative period yet — a year that saw the rise of Samsung through major launches like the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Note, as well as huge changes to the core of the platform. Read on to discover the year that transformed Android beyond recognition.
    - BlackBerry “Vienna” to be company’s second Android phone
      
      BlackBerry CEO John Chen hinted there was more to come following the Priv’s release, and CrackBerry is giving us our first glimpse. According to the website, BlackBerry has a second Android phone in the works, and it look a lot like a traditional BlackBerry device. A slider this is not, but for fans of hardware keyboards, Blackberry’s rumored “Vienna” might be the kind of old-school longtime fans have been waiting for.

Free Software/Open Source

Young computer scientist shares her open source story

I’ve been using open source for a while—seven years, to be exact. That may not seem like a long time, but when you’re 16, that’s almost half your life. My open source story is that of discovery, education, and mentoring opportunities. I’ve been extremely lucky.

I got started with open source in fifth grade over Christmas break. My Dad showed me how to write bash scripts on Linux in what we called “Daddy’s Computer Camp.” That February, I made my Dad a Valentine’s Day robot that had bash code on the front.
Open source, Agile and DevOps core principles of NHS Spine 2

Using open source tools, developing using Agile and DevOps techniques, and not signing contracts worth over £100 million were three of the core principles of building the NHS Spine 2 system – the digital backbone of the NHS which was migrated on to open source system last year.
9 Useful Open Source Big Data Tools

Hadoop is not the end-all, be-all of Big Data. There are lots of other Big Data platforms and tools, many of which are open source.
From open source to open community: ex-MySQL and Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos signs on with HackerOne

When Hewlett-Packard (back in the days when it was one company) acquired open source cloud infrastructure vendor Eucalyptus a year or two ago, many were left scratching their heads about what exactly HP planned to do with the company. Subsequent events have proved that confusion justified since Eucalyptus has gone nowhere and HP has had a lurching series of pivots around its cloud strategy. Indeed, the only logical thing about the deal was that HP would get the services of a very seasoned executive in Marten Mickos. Prior to joining HP, Mickos was CEO of Eucalyptus and before that CEO of MySQL, the open source database company.
SAP’s HANA will lose the big data war without open source, as proven by 21 new security flaws

SAP has been boasting about its “revolutionary” big data platform, SAP HANA, for years. While its claims have always been a bit suspect, recent revelations that HANA is riddled with critical security flaws only reinforce the mantra that, when it comes to big data infrastructure, open source is best.
Ex-MySQL CEO Marten Mickos On Leadership And The Open Source Revolution

Marten Mickos is the newly announced CEO of bug bounty platform HackerOne. Marten, a Finnish native, is a proven CEO; he led the iconic open source database company MySQL, and later worked for Sun Microsystems after their acquisition of that company.

He then led cloud software company Eucalyptus Systems, which was acquired by HP. He has also served on the board of Nokia & has been spearheading the online School of Herring, which focuses on leadership.
Support For Old Hardware Is Being Removed From Coreboot

Coreboot developers are taking to their Git tree and dropping support for old motherboards and chipsets.

Yesterday saw the removal in Git of many Tyan motherboards as well as some from IWILL and Newisys and IBM.
Hired adds transparency to the hiring process, makes tech open source

Whether you’re a potential employee or a potential employer, the thing that matters most is that you find the right fit: the right job offer, location, compensation and the right co-workers. Hired is looking to fill the specialty-job niche by pre-screening both parties before the resumes start circulating and the interviews begin.

Admit it, if you’re an employer, to grow your business you need talent. To that end, Hired delivers a curated pool of responsive candidates so less time is spent sourcing and more time devoted to interviewing and hiring.
NIA: Midokura’s open source MidoNet doesn’t hold back

Midokura wins this month’s Network Innovation Award for MidoNet Community Edition, an open source version of its flagship product.
Open ethos powers Aleph Objects’ success

We are firmly committed to advancing free software, libre innovation, and open source hardware. A LulzBot 3D printer was the first hardware product and only 3D printer to meet the Open Source Hardware Association definition and earn the Free Software Foundation’s Respects Your Freedom certification.
Google Offers Up Its Entire Machine Learning Library as Open-Source Software
TensorFlow could be Google’s new, open-source, central nervous system
Google Opens Floodgates for TensorFlow Development
TensorFlow – Google’s latest machine learning system, open sourced for everyone
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
SaaS/Big Data
- SwiftStack Advances OpenStack Cloud Storage [VIDEO]
  
  The Swift storage project holds a unique place in the OpenStack big tent, as one of the two original projects (the other being Nova compute) for the open source cloud platform. SwiftStack is one of the leading contributors to the Swift project and also has its own commercially supported SwiftStack Object Storage enterprise product, which was recently updated to version 3.0.
BSD
- How To Compile CUDA Code With LLVM
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Applying the Free Software Criteria
  
  The four essential freedoms provide the criteria for whether a particular piece of code is free/libre (i.e., respects its users’ freedom). How should we apply them to judge whether a software package, an operating system, a computer, or a web page is fit to recommend?
  
  Whether a program is free affects first of all our decisions about our private activities: to maintain our freedom, we need to reject the programs that would take it away. However, it also affects what we should say to others and do with others.
  
  A nonfree program is an injustice. To distribute a nonfree program, to recommend a nonfree program to other people, or more generally steer them into a course that leads to using nonfree software, means leading them to give up their freedom. To be sure, leading people to use nonfree software is not the same as installing nonfree software in their computers, but we should not lead people in the wrong direction.
  
  At a deeper level, we must not present a nonfree program as a solution because that would grant it legitimacy. Non-free software is a problem; to present it as a solution denies the existence of the problem.
- Getting Started with GNU Radio
  
  Software Defined Radio (SDR)–the ability to process radio signals using software instead of electronics–is undeniably fascinating. However, there is a big gap from being able to use off-the-shelf SDR software and writing your own. After all, SDRs require lots of digital signal processing (DSP) at high speeds.
  
  Not many people could build a modern PC from scratch, but nearly anyone can get a motherboard, some I/O cards, a power supply, and a case and put together a custom system. That’s the idea behind GNU Radio and SDR. GNU Radio provides a wealth of Python functions that you can use to create sophisticated SDR application (or, indeed, any DSP application).
  
  If Python is still not up your alley (or even if it is), there’s an even easier way to use GNU Radio: The GNU Radio Companion (GRC). This is a mostly graphical approach, allowing you to thread together modules graphically and build simple GUIs to control you new radio.
- GNU Scientific Library 2.1 released
  
  Version 2.1 of the GNU Scientific Library (GSL) is now available. GSL provides a large collection of routines for numerical computing in C.
  
  This release is primarily for fixing a few bugs present in the recent 2.0 release, but also provides a brand new module for solving large linear least squares problems.
- Reproducible builds: a means to an end
  
  GNU Guix is committed to improving the freedom and autonomy of computer users. This obviously manifests in the fact that GuixSD is a fully free distro, and this is what GNU stands for. All the packages in Guix are built from source, including things like firmware where there is an unfortunate tendency to use pre-built binaries; that way, users can know what software they run. On the technical side, Guix also tries hard to empower users by making the whole system as hackable as possible, in a uniform way—making Freedom #1 practical, à la Emacs.
  
  Guix provides pre-compiled binaries of software packages as a service to its users—these are substitutes for local builds. This is a convenient way to save time, but it could become a threat to users if they cannot establish that those substitutes are authentic—that their Corresponding Source really is what it claims to be.
Project Releases
- [dwm] 6.1 release
  
  After a long time (dwm 6.0 was released on 2011-12-19) it is time for a new dwm release. Thanks goes out to all the people involved at making the software better in various ways!
Public Services/Government
- Open source software gains traction in federal IT
  
  Open source software has at last arrived in the government space, said industry executives and federal IT officials at the 2015 Red Hat Government Symposium Tuesday.
  
  Just 10 years ago, many agencies needed special permission to procure open source software — referring to code that’s freely available, and that users can change and improve on — said Paul Smith, vice president and general manager for public sector operations at Red Hat.
- CSC Obtains FedRAMP Certification for PaaS Cloud Offering; Red Hat’s Paul Smith Comments
  
  Computer Sciences Corp. has received a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program certification for the company’s ARCWRX cloud computing technology.
  
  CSC said Tuesday this is the second FedRAMP certification for the platform-as-a-service ARCWRX, which is based on Red Hat’s OpenShift and resides on CSC’s ARC-P platform.
Licensing
- GPL Enforcement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
  
  The revelation of this clause has confused our community, as it appears as if this provision, once adopted, might impact or restrict the international operation of copyleft licenses. Below we explain that, while everyone should reject and oppose this provision — and the rest of TPP — this provision has no dramatic impact on copyleft licensing.
  
  First, as others have pointed out, Party is a defined term that refers specifically to government entities that sign the treaty. As such, the provision would only constrain the behavior of governments themselves. There are some obviously bad outcomes of this provision when those governmental entities interfere with public safety and ethical distribution of software, but we believe this provision will not interfere with international enforcement of copyleft.
  
  Copyleft licenses use copyright as a mechanism to keep software free. The central GPL mechanism that copyright holders exercise to ensure software freedom is termination of permission to copy, modify and distribute the software (per GPLv2§4 and GPLv3§8). Under GPL’s termination provisions, non-compliance results in an automatic termination of all copyright permissions. In practice, distributors can chose — either they can provide the source code or cease distribution. Once permissions terminate, any distribution of the GPL’d software infringes copyrights. Accordingly, in an enforcement action, there is no need to specifically compel a government to ask for disclosure of source code.
  
  For example, imagine if a non-US entity ships a GPL-violating, Linux-based product into the USA, and after many friendly attempts to achieve compliance, the violating company refuses to comply. Conservancy can sue the company in US federal court, and seek injunction for distribution of the foreign product in the USA, since the product infringes copyright by violating the license. The detailed reasons for that infringement (i.e., failure to disclose source code) is somewhat irrelevant to the central issue; the Court can grant injunction (i.e., an order to prevent the company from distributing the infringing product) based simply on the violator’s lost permissions under the existing copyright license. The Court could even order the cease of import of the infringing products.
  
  In our view, the violator would be unaffected under the above TPP provision, since the Court did not specifically compel release of the source code, but rather simply ruled that the product generally infringed copyrights, and their distribution rights had fully terminated upon infringement. In other words, the fact that the violator lost copyright permissions and can seek to restore them via source code disclosure is not dispositive to the underlying infringement claim.
  
  While TPP thus does not impact copyright holders’ ability to enforce the GPL, there are nevertheless plenty of reasons to oppose TPP. Conservancy therefore joins the FSF, EFF, and other organizations in encouraging everyone to oppose TPP.
Openness/Sharing
- Quartz to open source two mapping tools
  
  News outlet Quartz is developing a searchable database of compiled map data from all over the world, and a tool to help journalists visualise this data.
  
  The database, called Mapquery, received $35,000 (£22,900) from the Knight Foundation Prototype Fund on 3 November.
  
  Keith Collins, project lead, said Mapquery will aim to make the research stage in the creation of maps easier and more accessible, by creating a system for finding, merging and refining geographic data.
- Stronger than fear: Mental health in the open
  
  Finkler is active in PHP, Python, and JavaScript communities and had developed a popular Twitter client for the WebOS platform. He has plenty of open source knowledge, but his only expierience with mental illness was personal. So he began presenting at conferences, sharing his experience. After each talk, people would share their own issues with him.
Standards/Consortia
- How VA and DOD Can Approach Data Standards and Interoperability — Before Standards Are Established
  
  For organizations like the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, patient safety and quality of care are paramount, thus, having the ability to seamlessly share medical data with each other, as well as with other providers, is critical. Consider for a moment, a service person’s transition from active duty to veteran status. Patient records and critical medical history details must transition smoothly to ensure the patient receives appropriate, complete care at the right time.

Leftovers

Long-Term Exposure to Flat Design: How the Trend Slowly Decreases User Efficiency

Interfaces with completely flat visual design do not use any realistic or three-dimensional visual effects. As a consequence, they do away with the heavy-handed visual cues that have been traditionally used to communicate clickability to users.

The popularity of ultraflat interfaces has declined since its heyday of 2013, and more websites are adopting more moderate, flat 2.0 designs — in which interfaces make use of subtle effects to create the impression of a slightly layered three-dimensional space. Despite this return to moderation, we’re starting to see the long-term impact of the widespread usage of weak clickability cues encouraged by the popularity of flat design.
Sepp Blatter Hospitalised After ‘Stress-Related’ Breakdown.

Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been hospitalised after being placed under medical observation for stress, but he is expecting to leave the facility early next week, his spokesman said Wednesday.
France cancels official dinner with Iran’s President Rouhani… because he wants it to be wine-free

Guess who’s not coming to dinner — or even breakfast or lunch?

Ahead of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s landmark European trip kicking off this weekend, French officials reportedly nixed plans for a formal meal in Paris with President François Hollande following a dispute over the menu. The Iranians, according to France’s RTL Radio, insisted on a wine-free meal with halal meat — a request based on Islamic codes that amounted to culinary sacrilege in France, a nation that puts the secular ideals of the Republic above all else.
How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name

Once upon a time, Apple was known for designing easy-to-use, easy-to-understand products. It was a champion of the graphical user interface, where it is always possible to discover what actions are possible, clearly see how to select that action, receive unambiguous feedback as to the results of that action, and have the power to reverse that action—to undo it—if the result is not what was intended.

No more. Now, although the products are indeed even more beautiful than before, that beauty has come at a great price. Gone are the fundamental principles of good design: discoverability, feedback, recovery, and so on. Instead, Apple has, in striving for beauty, created fonts that are so small or thin, coupled with low contrast, that they are difficult or impossible for many people with normal vision to read. We have obscure gestures that are beyond even the developer’s ability to remember. We have great features that most people don’t realize exist.
Health/Nutrition
- Scientist Offers $10M To Monsanto To Prove GMO Is Safe
  
  Scientist Dr Shiva Ayyadurai has challenged Monsanto to prove him wrong on research that shows genetically modified (GM) soy to be dangerous.
Security
- Security advisories for Wednesday
- Your Unhashable Fingerprints Secure Nothing
  
  Passwords are crap. Nobody picks good ones, when they do they re-use them across sites, and if you use even a trustworthy password manager, they’ll get hacked too. But you know what’s worse than a password? A fingerprint. Fingerprints have enough problems with them that they should never be used anywhere a password would be.
  
  Passwords are supposed to be secret, like the name of your childhood pet. In contrast, you carry your fingers around with you out in the open nearly everywhere you go. Passwords also need to be revocable. In the case that your password does get revealed, it’s great to be able to simply pick another one. You don’t want to have to revoke your fingers. Finally, and this is the kicker, you want your password to be hashable, in order to protect the password database itself from theft.
- Linux Ransomware Debut Fails on Predictable Encryption Key
- Israel’s Cymmetria, Which Deceives Hackers, Raises $9 Million
  
  Cymmetria Inc., an Israeli start-up whose software lures hackers into cyber traps within organizations’ networks has raised around $9 million, the latest sign that investors are flocking to one of cyber-security’s hottest trends: deceiving hackers and catching them red handed.
  
  The Tel Aviv-based cyber-security firm makes decoy servers which simulate an organization’s real networks without jeopardizing operations or giving away real data.
- Growing Scope of Ransomware
- Ransomware takes evolutionary step and targets websites
- Ransomware meets Linux – on the command line!
- Linux web servers targeted in new ransomware scam
- sNew ransomware targets Linux administrators
- Decryption Tool Foils Linux Server Ransomware Attacks
- Six WordPress Plugins Vulnerable
- evolution of seccomp
  
  So, yes, Linux “could match this API on seccomp”. It’d just take some extensions to libseccomp to implement pledge(), as I described at the top. With OpenBSD doing a bunch of analysis work on common programs, it’d be excellent to see this usable on Linux too. So far on Linux, only a few programs (e.g. Chrome, vsftpd) have bothered to do this using seccomp, and it could be argued that this is ultimately due to how fine grained it is.
- Thanks for playing: New Linux ransomware decrypted, pwns itself
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- Houghton has not just broken taboos over Trident, he has undermined democracy
  
  Asked about their view of the Trident nuclear missile system, Britain’s armed forces chiefs have always insisted that they cannot comment because it was a “political” matter, not at all a “military” one.
  
  General Sir Nicholas Houghton, chief of the defence staff, has now abandoned such caution, breaking a taboo by expressing a view that has huge constitutional implications. Britain’s most senior military officer has taken sides on an issue that is the subject of a highly charged political debate, and one in which tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money are at stake.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Indonesia’s forest fires: everything you need to know
  
  The most obvious damage is to the forest where the fires are occurring. Indonesia’s tropical forests represent some of the most diverse habitats on the planet. The current fire outbreak adds to decades of existing deforestation by palm oil, timber and other agribusiness operators, further imperilling endangered species such as the orangutan.
  
  The human cost is stark; 19 people have died and an estimated 500,000 cases of respiratory tract infections have been reported since the start of the fires. It’s estimated that the fires could cause more than 100,000 premature deaths in the region.
  
  Financial damage to the region’s economy is still being counted, but the Indonesian government’s own estimates suggest it could be as high as $47bn, a huge blow to the country’s economy. A World Bank study (pdf) on forest fires last year in Riau province estimated that they caused $935m of losses relating to lost agricultural productivity and trade.
- Orangutans are losing both health and habitat to palm oil fires
  
  Tellingly, the lands just outside that sanctuary—still smoking from recent fires—were recently planted with new oil palms.
- Satellites Expose Just How Bad Indonesia’s Fires Are
  
  Indonesia has been aflame for a couple months now. That happens every fall—the country’s fire season is severe—but this time around, things are the worst they’ve been in almost two decades. This year’s crazy-strong El Niño has desiccated the region’s peat beds, while palm oil plantations exacerbate the problem by cutting down trees and draining the normally soggy land.
  
  All that dry stuff adds up to create a big, flaming environmental catastrophe. By some estimates, the inferno this year has released more than 1.5 billion tons of emissions, larger than the annual fossil fuel output of Japan.
- The final days of sub-400 ppm carbon dioxide
  
  During the Pleistocene “ice age,” this measurement (or its glacial air bubble proxy) varied between 180 and 280 ppm. It was at about 280 ppm prior to the Industrial Revolution. Since then, we’ve been taking carbon out of the ground, where it was sequestered hundreds of millions of years ago, and setting it on fire. The “free” energy we got from this chemical reaction has powered tremendous advancements in well-being of most humans living in industrialized societies. But the oxidation of carbon results in carbon dioxide, and though plants suck some of it up again, and the oceans absorb about a third of it, most continues to hang out in the atmosphere. Over the past two centuries, it has been piling up like dishes in a dormitory sink. This waste gas is a problem, for it’s selectively opaque to light – visible light is unfiltered by CO2, but CO2 blocks infrared wavelengths, the kind any object sitting in the sun emits long after the sun has set. That means our atmosphere retains more of the heat that would otherwise get bled off into space. Energy comes in more or less constantly from the sun, but less and less of it is making it back out.
- Will Indonesian Fires Spark Reform of Rogue Forest Sector?
  
  The fires that blazed in Indonesia’s rainforests in 1982 and 1983 came as a shock. The logging industry had embarked on a decades-long pillaging of the country’s woodlands, opening up the canopy and drying out the carbon-rich peat soils. Preceded by an unusually long El Niño-related dry season, the forest fires lasted for months, sending vast clouds of smoke across Southeast Asia.
Finance
- Arrests in JP Morgan, eTrade, Scottrade Hacks
  
  U.S. authorities today announced multiple indictments and arrests in connection with separate hacking incidents that resulted in the theft of more than 100 million customer records from some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions and brokerage firms, including JP Morgan Chase, E*Trade and Scottrade.
- Alibaba’s Singles Day Blowout Racks Up $5B in Sales in First 90 Minutes
  
  The world’s biggest shopping day is happening right now, and you probably don’t even know it.
  
  In China, it’s already November 11, or 11/11, and the massive e-commerce event known as “Singles Day” is well under way. Launched by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2009, the idea is that for a full 24 hours, shoppers who are unmarried and unattached should go online and splurge on a nice gift for themselves.
  
  How big a deal is Singles Day? This year, during Alibaba’s four-hour television event the night ahead of Singles Day (yes, this year they celebrated “Singles Day’s Eve”), Alibaba trotted out a parade of Chinese pop celebrities and movie stars. James Bond (er, Daniel Craig) appeared onstage with Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Kevin Spacey made an appearance via video in his House of Cards persona, President Frank Underwood.
- Fast food workers strike nationwide for $15/hr
  
  Hundreds of fast food workers are striking nationwide Tuesday, joining other workers in pressing for a more livable wage.
  
  Billed as the largest rally to date, there are 270 demonstrations scheduled nationwide. Workers have gone on strike nationwide repeatedly in the last few years demanding higher pay. According to organizers, more than 60 million Americans are paid less than $15 per hour.
- Crickhowell: Welsh town moves ‘offshore’ to avoid tax on local business
  
  When independent traders in a small Welsh town discovered the loopholes used by multinational giants to avoid paying UK tax, they didn’t just get mad.
  
  Now local businesses in Crickhowell are turning the tables on the likes of Google and Starbucks by employing the same accountancy practices used by the world’s biggest companies, to move their entire town “offshore”.
- David Cameron hasn’t the faintest idea how deep his cuts go. This letter proves it
  
  It’s like the crucial moment in Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American. The US agent stares at the blood on his shoes, unable to make the connection between the explosion he commissioned and the bodies scattered across the public square in Saigon. In leaked correspondence with the Conservative leader of Oxfordshire county council (which covers his own constituency), David Cameron expresses his horror at the cuts being made to local services. This is the point at which you realise that he has no conception of what he has done.
  
  The letters were sent in September, but came to light only on Friday, when they were revealed by the Oxford Mail. The national media has been remarkably slow to pick the story up, given the insight it offers into the prime minister’s detachment from the consequences of his actions.
- The Wall Street Journal Praises For-Profit Colleges That Prey On Veterans
  
  Federal law allows for-profit colleges to access more federal funding by enrolling large numbers of military veterans, despite evidence that many of these schools do not prepare their students for the job market. In recent years, predatory recruitment of service members by several for-profit college chains has been exposed by congressional and media investigations, yet the Wall Street Journal editorial board continues to defend the schools’ recruiting practices and advocates for fewer student protections at for-profit institutions. In honor of Veterans Day, here are some of the Journal’s most misleading and inflammatory arguments defending failing for-profits that take advantage of veterans.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Bezos’ Stake in Uber Goes Under the Radar at Washington Post
  
  The Washington Post, like all major publications, reports on Uber quite a bit. In fact, it’s done so about a dozen times in the past week alone. But unlike every other publication, its corporate interest in the mobile phone-based car service company is more than journalistic in nature.
  
  The Post‘s sole owner, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is a major shareholder in Uber. In 2011, Bezos and two other investors, Menlo Ventures and Goldman Sachs, collectively invested $32 million in the then-fledging startup. Because Uber is a private company, it’s impossible to know the exact current value of Bezos’ investment, but assuming the three investors contributed evenly, the last valuation of the company would put his stake in Uber at roughly $1.5 billion. To put that in perspective, it’s approximately six times what Bezos paid for the Post in 2013.
  
  While the Post occasionally mentions this glaring conflict when covering Uber, a large majority of its Uber-related articles make no mention of the boss’s stake. It’s unclear what criteria the Post uses to either disclose or not disclose the conflict of interest. (An email to the Post requesting an explanation went unanswered.)
- ‘Google This’ Is Good Advice From Netanyahu, Since NYT Won’t Check His Claims for You
  
  Readers who followed Netanyahu’s advice to turn to Google, then, would be much better informed of the reality of Israel’s settlement policy than those who simply read the New York Times parroting his claims.
Censorship
- WikiLeaks Targets “Trigger Warnings” And “Safe Spaces”
  
  The whistleblowing non-profit WikiLeaks has a new target. It isn’t a corrupt government or an incompetent military, but “trigger warnings,” “safe spaces” and “microaggressions.” WikiLeaks argued on its official Twitter account that the rising popularity of these terms is thanks to what it calls “generation trauma”—and that it’s harming free speech.
- Starting From Next Year, China Wants Music Services To Vet Every Song Before It Goes Online
  
  As the article explains, online music companies are expected to bear all the costs of setting up censorship departments and training staff to vet all the songs, and will be punished if they fail to implement the new policy properly. At least some will have had practice, since a similar approach has been applied to online posts for some time.
- Cinema pulls screening of Prophet Mohamed film The Message after fewer than 100 complaints
  
  A Scottish cinema has become embroiled in a freedom of speech row after it pulled the screening of a film about the life of the Prophet Mohamed after fewer than 100 complaints.
  
  The Grosvenor Cinema was due to screen the Oscar-nominated 1977 film The Message on Sunday on behalf of the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB). But it pulled the screening after an anonymous petition with 94 signatories – largely from Scotland but also from people registered in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia – criticised the film as being “inappropriate and disrespectful” to Islam.
- How to avoid being hit by a Google algorithm update: How to SEO your website and stay off Google’s blacklist
  
  We explain how to ensure your website is not adversely affected by Google algorithm updates. How to SEO your website and stay off Google’s blacklist: how to get lots of traffic from search. Here are our essential SEO tips.
Privacy
- How Europe can blaze a trail for whistleblowers
  
  A pleasant surprise from the European parliament at the end of October: delegates managed to narrowly pass a resolution calling on EU member states to recognize Edward Snowden as a whistleblower and an international human rights defender. The resolution calls on member states to guarantee Snowden protection from prosecution, extradition and transfer to third states, i.e. the United States.
  
  This is a major step, even if the resolution does not have any binding power. It has echoes of Snowden’s situation in summer 2013 as he desperately sent out asylum requests to states in Europe and elsewhere from within the transit zone at Moscow airport – to no avail. In the two years since then, discussions have been ongoing in Germany on whether or not Snowden could at the very least safely enter and leave Germany to give testimony to the NSA inquiry committee. But the German government made it clear that the political will for this is lacking. Similar reactions came from the governments in Switzerland and Sweden when the question of asylum was up for discussion there.
- The snooper’s charter: one misspelled Google search for ‘bong-making’ and you’ll be in an orange jumpsuit
  
  Theresa May, with the general air of a hawk that had a This Morning makeover, has launched the new investigatory powers bill. No more drunken Googling: all it takes is a misspelled search for “bong-making” and suddenly you’ll be in an orange jumpsuit getting beaten with a pillowcase full of bibles. Also, pay attention when searching for a child’s prom.
  
  This law will create lots of new jobs, as the person charged with reading all our communications (who will see more unsolicited erections than customer services at Skype) will regularly feed their screaming face into a meatgrinder.
- Theresa May’s proposed spying law is ‘worse than scary’ United Nations says
  
  Theresa May’s proposed surveillance and spying laws are “worse than scary”, the United Nations’ privacy chief has said.
  
  Joseph Cannataci, the UN’s special rapporteur on privacy, said the draft Investigatory Powers Bill heralded a “golden age of surveillance” unlike any that had come before.
  
  The draft law, published by the Home Secretary earlier this month, would require internet companies to hand over any and all of their users’ communications as required by authorities.
- Judge Orders NSA to Stop Collecting American’s Phone Records Immediately
  
  Last summer, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, a surveillance reform that prohibits the government from collecting telephone metadata in bulk, but the NSA was able to get the program extended a few more months, until November 29, 2015, the last day that type of surveillance will be legal.
  
  Judge Leon already ruled that this program violated the Fourth Amendment in December of 2013, a decision he echoed and reiterated on Monday. The Judge also complained about the slowness with which this legal process moved.
  
  “I assumed the appeal would proceed expeditiously,” Judge Leon wrote in his decision. “For reasons unknown to me, it did not.”
- Facebook must stop tracking Belgian users within 48 hours, or be fined €250K per day
  
  A Belgian court yesterday gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking Internet users who do not have a Facebook account. If the US company refuses to comply, it faces fines of up to €250,000 (£177,000 or ~$267,500) per day.
  
  “Today the judge… ordered the social network Facebook to stop tracking and registering Internet usage by people who surf the Internet in Belgium, in the 48 hours which follow this statement,” the Belgian court said according to AFP.
  
  The judgment is a result of Belgium’s independent Privacy Commission taking Facebook to court for failing to comply with the country’s privacy laws, as Ars reported back in June. The Privacy Commission wanted Facebook to implement a number of changes to its operations, including refraining from “systematically placing long-life and unique identifier cookies with non-users of Facebook.” The commission always wanted Facebook to stop collecting and using user data through the use of cookies and social plug-ins unless it obtained an unambiguous and specific consent through an opt-in.
- As Belgium threatens fines, Facebook’s defence of tracking visitors rings hollow
  
  Facebook has said that it will appeal the ruling, claiming that since their european headquarters are situated in Ireland, they should only be bound by the Irish Data Protection Regulator.
- Tor Says Feds Paid Carnegie Mellon $1M to Help Unmask Users
  
  Ever since a Carnegie Mellon talk on cracking the anonymity software Tor was abruptly pulled from the schedule of the Black Hat hacker conference last year, the security community has been left to wonder whether the research was silently handed over to law enforcement agencies seeking to uncloak the internet’s anonymous users. Now the non-profit Tor Project itself says that it believes the FBI did use Carnegie Mellon’s attack technique—and paid them handsomely for the privilege.
- Did the FBI Pay a University to Attack Tor Users?
  
  The Tor Project has learned more about last year’s attack by Carnegie Mellon researchers on the hidden service subsystem. Apparently these researchers were paid by the FBI to attack hidden services users in a broad sweep, and then sift through their data to find people whom they could accuse of crimes.
- Justice officials fear nation’s biggest wiretap operation may not be legal
  
  Federal drug agents have built a massive wiretapping operation in the Los Angeles suburbs, secretly intercepting tens of thousands of Americans’ phone calls and text messages to monitor drug traffickers across the United States despite objections from Justice Department lawyers who fear the practice may not be legal.
  
  Nearly all of that surveillance was authorized by a single state court judge in Riverside County, who last year signed off on almost five times as many wiretaps as any other judge in the United States. The judge’s orders allowed investigators — usually from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — to intercept more than 2 million conversations involving 44,000 people, federal court records show.
- Appeals Court Says NSA Can Keep Trampling 4th Amendment With Phone Surveillance Program For Now
  
  This is hardly a surprise, but the DC Appeals Court has issued a stay on Judge Richard Leon’s ruling from earlier this week that the NSA’s bulk phone record collection program was unconstitutional. This is the same appeals court that overturned Leon’s earlier ruling finding the program unconstitutional. This time, as we noted, Judge Leon refused to grant the government a stay, noting that the DC Circuit had taken its sweet time in actually issuing a ruling on the appeal — and the program is set to end in a couple weeks anyway. Also, Leon didn’t order the entire program shut down, but just that the NSA stop keeping the records of the plaintiffs who were customers of Verizon Business Network Services (J.J. Little and J.J. Little & Associates).
- Broadband bills will have to increase to pay for snooper’s charter, MPs are warned
  
  Consumers’ broadband bills will have to go up if the investigatory powers bill is passed due to the “massive cost” of implementation, MPs have been warned.
  
  Internet service providers (ISP) told a Commons select committee that the legislation, commonly known as the snooper’s charter, does not properly acknowledge the “sheer quantity” of data generated by a typical internet user, nor the basic difficulty of distinguishing between content and metadata.
- Massive Hack of 70 Million Prisoner Phone Calls Indicates Violations of Attorney-Client Privilege
  
  AN ENORMOUS CACHE of phone records obtained by The Intercept reveals a major breach of security at Securus Technologies, a leading provider of phone services inside the nation’s prisons and jails. The materials — leaked via SecureDrop by an anonymous hacker who believes that Securus is violating the constitutional rights of inmates — comprise over 70 million records of phone calls, placed by prisoners to at least 37 states, in addition to links to downloadable recordings of the calls. The calls span a nearly two-and-a-half year period, beginning in December 2011 and ending in the spring of 2014.
Civil Rights
- DOJ Has Blocked Everyone In The Executive Branch From Reading The Senate’s Torture Report
  
  A year ago, we were writing a ton on the famed Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report. This report, which Committee staffers spent years on, cost $40 million, and clocked in at nearly 7,000 pages of detailed analysis of the US’s hugely questionable (both morally and legally) torture program in the wake of 9/11. After much fighting, the Senate finally released a heavily redacted executive summary, but since then there have been some questions about what happens with the full report. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was (believe it or not!) the driving force behind the report, had copies of the full report delivered to the Defense Department, the CIA, the State Department and the Justice Department. However, there has been a lot of confusion over whether or not anyone actually read it. The DOJ clearly announced that officials had read the whole thing… but later claimed that no one had even opened the report. Obviously, the DOJ lied with one of those statements.
- Video emerges showing unarmed Virginia man being tased by three police officers while shackled before dying in custody – and all three cops have been PROMOTED
  
  Video has emerged that shows three officers tasing a man 20 times in half an hour while he was shackled.
  
  Linwood Lambert of South Boston, Virginia, was taken into custody shortly before 5am on May 4, 2013, when police responded to a noise complaint and found him acting in a paranoid and delusional way in his room at a Super 8 motel.
  
  The officers had no reason to arrest Lambert and decided to handcuff him and take him to hospital.
  
  But along the way he grew agitated and, as they pulled up to the ER entrance, he kicked out the back window of the squad car and ran towards the hospital door.
  
  That is when the officers began tasing Lambert, who immediately fell straight to the ground. He was unable to break his fall due to wearing handcuffs.
  
  The three officers told Lambert, 46, they were arresting him and drove him from the hospital to the police station.
  
  He was unconscious by the time they arrived at the station, and pronounced dead by the time he arrived back at the hospital he had just left.
- Indonesia drugs: Crocodiles ‘to guard death row prisons’
  
  The head of Indonesia’s anti-drugs agency has proposed building a prison island guarded by crocodiles to house death-row drug convicts.
  
  Budi Waseso said crocodiles often made better guards than humans – because they could not be bribed.
- 60 Minutes Stands With Secret Keepers Against Those Who Expose Them
  
  How do you get Snowden, Manning and the Washington Navy Yard spree shooter in the same category? By treating leaks to the press and a sawed-off shotgun as the same thing: all “weapons.” It’s a peculiar stance for a TV news magazine that prides itself on its tradition of investigative reporting to take—that getting information out to the public is a form of violence.
  
  It’s also odd for journalists to describe Manning, because she was convicted under the Espionage Act, as a “convicted spy.” The law forbids giving “an unauthorized person…any classified information,” language that was not meant to give the United States an Official Secrets Act, but which has been treated as such by the Obama administration. Regardless of whether this is legal or constitutional, the Act doesn’t change the meaning of the word “spy”; presumably when 60 Minutes reporters get classified information from government officials, they don’t say to their sources, “Thanks for spying for us.”
Internet/Net Neutrality
- T-Mobile Exempts Video Streams From Wireless Data Caps, Sets A Horrible Precedent
  
  You’ll probably see countless reports suggesting that T-Mobile’s move is sure to “invite scrutiny by the FCC,” but that’s highly unlikely. T-Mobile’s done a fantastic job of selling a potentially problematic precedent as consumer empowerment. Meanwhile, the FCC has made it abundantly clear it sees usage caps and zero rating as creative pricing experimentation, in the process opening the door wide to a lopsided vision of the Internet many will naively be cheering for.
- Comcast Keeps Scolding Me For Calling Its Top Lobbyist A Lobbyist
  
  Last summer I noted that Comcast’s PR department pretty consistently now sends me snotty e-mail “corrections.” Not about any of the thousands of articles Techdirt or I have written about the company’s abysmal customer service, punitive usage caps, ridiculously high prices, or obnoxiously anti-competitive behavior mind you, but to scold me for one and only one thing: calling the company’s top lobbyist a lobbyist.
Intellectual Monopolies
- US tries, and fails, to block “import” of digital data that violates patents
  
  A federal appeals court panel today struck down an International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling in a patent case that attempted to block electronic transmissions of digital data from overseas.
  
  The ITC’s authority to prevent importation of “articles” applies only to material things, not digital transmissions, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled. (Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge posted the ruling’s text.)
- Video conferencing: a golden opportunity to reduce costs in patent proceedings
  
  Indeed while patents are a great thing, it does cost money to obtain them — and applicants should not rely on the EPO to remedy their self-imposed inconveniences. The EPC does not contain “poor law” provisions such as financial subsidies or leniencies for parties with a tight budget, contrary to some countries’ national patent laws. Accordingly, applicants that operate on a tight budget must carefully consider if they are really and truly prepared to cover the costs entailed in EPC proceedings — or whether they should rather accept any concessions that might be available under national patent laws. As Merpel notes, if they can’t even afford the cost of dealing with the EPO in examination proceedings, and possibly in post-grant opposition proceedings, there’s probably little chance of them being to afford the cost of litigating these patents nationally or, as will soon be likely, before the Unified Patent Court, wherever that litigation might be.
- Copyrights
  - Blizzard Sues Bot Maker For Copyright Infringement
    
    Blizzard Entertainment is taking a stand against popular cheating bots for World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and Heroes of the Storm. The game company is suing the alleged operator(s) of a series of popular bots for copyright infringement and accuses them of ruining the gaming experience for legitimate players.

]]> http://techrights.org/2015/11/12/fedora-goes-for-wayland/feed/ 0 Links 24/2/2015: Xfce 4.12 a Week Away, GNOME 3.16 Previewed http://techrights.org/2015/02/24/gnome-3-16-previewed/ http://techrights.org/2015/02/24/gnome-3-16-previewed/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2015 09:27:09 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=81850

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

]]> http://techrights.org/2015/02/24/gnome-3-16-previewed/feed/ 0 Links 21/9/2014: Fedora 21 Alpha http://techrights.org/2014/09/23/fedora-21-alpha/ http://techrights.org/2014/09/23/fedora-21-alpha/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:09:42 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=79496

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Farewell, Bonny Bodhi?

Well autumn is nigh upon us here in the Northern reaches of the Linux blogosphere, and any day now the a/c will downshift to “medium” over at the Broken Windows Lounge.

Oktoberfest ales are selling like hotcakes, the scent of pumpkin spice lattes fills the air, and more than a few bloggers are rejoicing at the end of the Dog Days at last.

The world might feel once again like a happy and wondrous place, in fact — Systemd, Schmystemd! — but for the recent arrival of a sad bit of news.
About Linux Weekly News – 22nd September 2014

Jeff Hoogland has since clarified the situation on his own blog “Thoughts On Technology”. Whilst it is true that Jeff has stepped down as the lead developer he has been actively seeking other volunteers to keep the project going.
Desktop
- Exclusive: Samsung exits laptop market including Chromebooks
  
  Samsung has decided to exit the laptop market stopping sales of Ativ Windows and Chromebook devices in Europe, PC Advisor can confirm.
  
  It’s common knowledge that the PC market is in decline with Sony pulling out and selling its Vaio business back in February of this year. Despite being a giant of the tech world, Samsung has now followed suit.
- 3 tools that make scanning on the Linux desktop quick and easy
  
  Whether you’re moving to a paperless lifestyle, need to scan a document to back it up or email it, want to scan an old photo, or whatever reason you have for making the physical electronic, a scanner comes in handy. In fact, a scanner is essential.
  
  But the catch is that most scanner makers don’t have Linux versions of the software that they bundle with their devices. For the most part, that doesn’t matter. Why? Because there are good scanning applications available for the Linux desktop. They work with a variety of scanners, and do a good job.
  
  Let’s take a look at a three simple but flexible Linux scanning tools. Keep in mind that the software discussed below is hardly an exhaustive list of the scanner software that’s available for the Linux desktop. It’s what I’ve used extensively and found useful.
Server
Audiocasts/Shows
- Luminosity of Free Software Episode 21
Kernel Space
Applications
- go-fish: Let’s finish it off
- gomoku: Average on all counts
- Small Console Menu Utilities
  
  One of the great strengths of Linux is the whole raft of weird and wonderful open source utilities. That strength does not simply derive from the functionality they offer, but from the synergy generated by using them together, sometimes in conjunction with applications.
- Geeknote: Command-Line Evernote Client
  
  Geeknote is a command-line client for Evernote, useful to add notes to Evernote via Bash scripts, cron, applications that can’t directly use the Evernote SDK or to simply manage your Evernote notes from the command-line.
- Proprietary
  - Ubuntu to Get Native HTML5 Streaming Through Google Chrome Soon
    
    sNetflix is looking to expand its business, and one of the ways to do that is to look at what other platforms it can support. Ubuntu is the most used Linux distribution, so it stands to reason that they might be interested to have their service working on it.
  - Should Linux Users Care About Official Netflix Support on Ubuntu?
    
    Netflix may soon offer official support for Ubuntu Linux. But does that really matter now that Netflix has unofficially worked on Linux via Wine for nearly two years?
  - Netflix Finally Adding Linux Support?
  - Desktop Linux is finally getting Netflix support
  - Canonical updates nss, brings Netflix closer to Linux
    
    Canonical developers have acted swiftly and pushed a security updated today (I got it on my Kubuntu box) which bumps nss to version 3.17.x. Now the ball is in Netflix’ court to make the proposed changes which will allow Linux users to run Netflix through Google Chrome.
  - Linux users: Prepare, Netflix is finally coming
  - Why there is no Netflix on Firefox for Linux
    
    Coming back to the point of Netflix, Linux users owe it to multiple players and some controversial technologies. NSS or Network Security Services, the missing piece of this Netflix for Linux puzzle, is a technology co-developed by Google, Mozilla,Sun Microsoft (and Oracle due to acquisition), AOL and others.
  - Ubuntu Linux users might be able to stream Netflix soon
  - Netflix Coming To Linux OS
- Instructionals/Technical
- Wine or Emulation
  - Wine 1.7.27 Has Improved Direct2D Support, World of Warcraft and Skyrim Now Work Better
    
    A new development version of Wine, 1.7.27, has been announced by Alexandre Julliard and is now available for download and testing. It features a few interesting major improvements and a host of smaller changes.
- Games
  - Tropico 5 Finally Lands on Steam for Linux
  - Starbound Development Is Very Healthy & Isn’t Going Anywhere
    
    With all the doom and gloom recently about games here’s a nice one. The head of Chucklefish has created a blog post about how healthy Starbound is and will continue to be.
  - Divinity: Original Sin Still Aims For Linux This Year
    
    We already knew that the Linux version of Divinity: Original Sin wouldn’t be out at the same time as Windows, but we didn’t know when at all. Users have been asking them about it a lot recently and they still claim it’s going to be this year.
  - Shroud Of The Avatar: Forsaken Virtues RPG Needs Greenlight Help
    
    Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a great looking RPG currently in pre-alpha that has Linux builds available, and it needs help to get on Steam. The game is being created by a team that includes Richard “Lord British” Garriott the creator of the Ultima series.
  - Games On AMD FOSS Drivers 3
    
    Mesa 10.3 just went stable two days ago. The rolling release distro’s are busy shoving it into testing and those brave enough to use such a distro can have some fun with that.
  - Tropico 5 PS4 delayed, Mac and Linux out now with PC cross-buy
  - Red Hat: The Face of Linux
    
    In this article, let’s take a look at Red Hat Inc. (RHT), a $10.95 billion market cap company, which is a leading provider of Linux operating systems for enterprises, and related middleware and virtualization software offerings.
  - SNOW, A Winter Sports Game Shows A Teaser On Linux, Powered By CryEngine
    
    SNOW is an upcoming free to play, open world winter sports game that is going to use CryEngine and the developers sent a little teaser out.
  - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Linux Beta Due Soon! (UPDATED)
  - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Officially Lands on Linux, Skips Beta
  - Tropico 5 released for Linux
    
    In Tropico the player takes over the role of “El Presidente”, the dictator of the island “Tropico” and is responsible for the islands nation from the colonial period to the 21st Century.
  - Counter Strike: Global Offensive Available For Linux
  - Pathologic Remake Plans For Day 1 Linux Support, Now On Kickstarter
  - Excubitor Tower Defence & Action Game Needs Help On Greenlight
  - Flockers Now Available For Linux, From The Creators Of Worms
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Qt 5.4 Will Support Applications Under A Wayland Compositor
    
    The QtWayland support for Qt 5.4 is considered a technical preview with support of QWidget-based apps being less than ideal, the QtCompositor API in QtWayland not seeing a release for Qt 5.4, and other work still needs to be pursued. The QtCompositor API for the QtWayland module is what’s needed for those out there wishing to write their own Wayland compositors using Qt. Qt’s support for XDG-Shell is also less than complete and there’s also not any official sub-surface protocol support for QtWayland.
  - Second Bugfix Release for KDE Plasma 5 Arrives with Lots of Changes
    
    “This release, versioned plasma-5.0.2, adds a month’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important such as fixing text which couldn’t be translated, using the correct icons and fixing overlapping files with KDELibs 4 software. It also adds a month’s hard work of translations to make support in other languages even more complete,” reads the announcement.
  - Bullies in the Machine or Pick On Someone Your Own Size
    
    It wasn’t but a few days ago that I approached the KDE community in Google Plus to ask a question. In asking that question, I included a screenshot to present a graphical representation of my problem. Three community members responded right away. The first two responses were legitimate queries: questions seeking to gather information needed to calculate an effective attack vector. The third response was…well, not so much.
  - Grantlee 5.0.0 release candidate available for testing
    
    I have tagged, pushed and tarball‘d a release candidate for Grantlee 5.0.0, based on Qt 5. Please go ahead and test it, and port your software to it, because some things have changed.
  - REPRISE OF AKADEMY 2014: ARTIKULATE
    
    Even when it sounds like KDE Akademy is a just big party, we have been very productive as well. During the birds-of-a-feather (BoF) session on user experience, we discussed usability and visual design for some projects.
    Here we want to report about the first one: Artikulate.
  - Automated language detection
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - Fresh software from the 3.14 menu
    
    If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to merge the aforementioned automatic rotation support into systemd/udev. The kernel API is pretty bad, which makes the user-space code look bad…
  - GNOME: 3.14 almost there
    
    Speaking of gedit, after the major changes of 3.12, 3.14 has been a cycle focused on stabilization and polishing. Overall the revised user interface got mostly positve feedback.. I for one, as a heavy gedit user, adapted to the new UI without problems. 3.14 will have a few incremental changes, that among other things try to address some of the issues pointed out by Jim Hall’s usability study presented at GUADEC: “Open” will be a single button removing the dichotomy between the open dialog and recent files and providing quick search among recent files. “Save” now uses a text label since it turns out a lot of people did not grok the icon (and no, I am not going back to the floppy image!) and the view menu has been reorganized and now uses a popover. With regard to the “Open” button, we know things are not perfect yet, search among recent is great, but when the “cache misses”, going through a double step is painful… we already have a few ideas on how to improve that next cycle, but for now I can vividly recommend to try the “quickopen” plugin, one of the hidden gems of gedit, which already provides some of the things we would like to integrate in the next iteration.
  - Cinnamon 2.4 to Feature New Theme Selection and Options for Linux Mint 17.1
    
    Cinnamon is the default desktop environment in Linux Mint and it’s built by the same developers who are making the Linux distro. It stands to reason that the best implementation for Cinnamon will be on Linux Mint. It’s also the place that integrates the latest updates for Cinnamon as soon as they are made available.
  - GTK+ 3.14 Brings Much Better Wayland Support, Multi-Touch, New Theme
    
    In preparation for this week’s GNOME 3.14 debut, the deadline is today for checking in the 3.14.0 release tarballs. One of the most prominent packages now checked in for the Wednesday release is GTK+ 3.14.
Distributions
- Slackware Family
  - Salix Fluxbox 14.1 Is a Lightweight Modular Distro Based on Slackware
    
    Along with the Openbox version of Salix, the Fluxbox edition is one of the lightest iterations available in the series. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly on the list of priorities for the developer and it’s been trailing a little behind, but now it’s ready.
    
    Salix is one the few very active distributions based on Slackware, which is a famous and very stable operating system that has been around for quite a while. It’s rather different from what everyone else is doing because it is a modular system and it has a rolling release model.
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat CEO announces a shift from client-server to cloud computing
    
    Red Hat is in the midst of changing its image from a top Linux company to the future king of cloud computing. CEO Jim Whitehurst told me in 2011 that the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud would be Red Hat’s future. Today in a blog posting, Whitehurst underlined this shift from Linux to OpenStack.
  - Red Hat Launches Cloud Program for Government Agencies
    
    Red Hat posted strong quarterly results last week that beat Wall Street’s expectations, and a big part of the news was that the company is starting to see meaningful revenue from its many initiatives surrounding cloud computing. Enterprises are a big part of Red Hat’s cloud focus, but the company has also made clear that it will focus on cloud services for big telecom companies, and organizations in niche sectors.
  - Performance and security in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
    
    Modern datacenters and next-generation IT requirements depend on capable platforms, with open source solutions offering a strong foundation for open hybrid cloud and enterprise workloads. A powerful, unified platform enables enterprises to use a solid foundation to balance demand while utilizing new trends and technologies such as virtual machines and the open hybrid cloud.
  - Linux? Bah! Red Hat has its eye on the CLOUD – and it wants to own it
    
    Not content with running the industry’s largest enterprise Linux vendor, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst says he wants to make the company the industry’s leading enterprise cloud vendor – and he plans to “win” that market before someone else does.
  - Red Hat shifts emphasis from Linux to cloud-based services
    
    RED HAT HAS ANNOUNCED that it will shift its emphasis from Linux to cloud computing in the next few years.
  - Fedora
    - Fedora 21 Alpha to be released on Sep 23
      
      Fedora 21 release schedule saw a number of delays in the recent past. But it seems that things are looking brighter now with an announcement by Ryan Lerch that the Alpha will be released next Tuesday i.e. September 23, 2014.
    - Bodhi Lives, Jessie Hints, and openSUSE Beta
      
      It’s been a busy day in Linux news with top stories featuring new openSUSE 13.2 Beta and Debian 8 packages. Bodhi Linux founder Jeff Hoogland said he has someone to take over the distribution project. Red Hat is changing focus from Linux to OpenStack! Knoppix 7.4.1 update was released and there’s been a lot buzz about upcoming GNOME 3.14. And, of course, we have today’s latest systemd news.
    - The Features Coming For Fedora 21
      
      Fedora 21 in alpha form is finally expected for release today. With Fedora 20 having been released last December and the Fedora 21 release getting continually dragged on due to delays, here’s a recap of some of the major changes being worked on for this next Fedora release.
    - Fedora 21 Alpha 1 Will Be Released Tomorrow, Using GNOME 3.14 (Stable Or Not) As Default
      
      Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, the first alpha version of Fedora 21 will be released tomorrow, after several delays, using GNOME 3.14 (stable or not) as the default desktop environment.
    - Fedora 21 Alpha available for testing
      
      Red Hat sponsored Fedora Project has announced the alpha release of Fedora 21.
    - Announcing the release of Fedora 21 Alpha
      
      Fedora prides itself on bringing cutting-edge technologies to users of open source software around the world, and this release continues that tradition. No matter what you do, Fedora 21 has the tools you need to help you get things done.
- Debian Family
  - From next release onwards, Debian is tied to systemd
    
    Anyone who installs Jessie from scratch will find that they are not offered no choice in the matter. This means that only the technically well-equipped will be able to make a switch in the event that systemd does not work as promised. Existing users of the testing stream will find, on checking, that their systems have been migrated over to systemd. Systems running the stable version of Debian have not been migrated across yet.
  - Knoppix 7.4.1 Is Now Available For Download
    
    Knoppix developers have released a major version of their operating system Knoppix 7.4.1 based on the usual picks from Debian stable (wheezy) and newer Desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable (jessie). According to the official release note, this distro version uses kernel 3.16.2 and xorg 7.7 (core 1.16.0) for supporting current computer hardware.
  - Debian 8 “Jessie” to Get GNOME 3.14
    
    The Debian developers decided a while ago that they were going to adopt Xfce instead of GNOME as the default desktop, but that doesn’t mean that users won’t be able to find all the GNOME packages in the repositories.
  - Debian Switches Back To GNOME As Its Default Desktop
    
    There still though is the chance for change as Hess explains, “Some desired data is not yet available, but at this point I’m around 80% sure that gnome is coming out ahead in the process. This is particularly based on accessibility and to some extent systemd integration… The only single factor that I think could outweigh the above is media size, if there was a strong desire by Debian to see a single CD with a standalone usable desktop. However, the Debian live team doesn’t care about fitting on a traditional CD; and while the Debian CD team hasn’t made a statement, my impression as a member is that this is not something we care enough about any more to make it a hard blocker on the default desktop.”
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu Touch RTM Preview – Ditching Android Just Got Easier
        
        Canonical has been working on Ubuntu Touch for almost two years, and now the company finally has a stable product that can be shown off and improved before the official launch, which is scheduled for sometime in December.
        
        The truth is that Ubuntu Touch has been deemed stable for quite some time and it was easy to make a preview article a few months back, but it wouldn’t have been representative of the final product. The direction of the design has changed a couple of times already, or better yet it has evolved. Numerous features have been added in just a few months, so any kind of analysis would have been rather pointless.
      - Migrating From Windows 7 To Ubuntu: The Ultimate Guide
        
        Despite what all the Linux haters say, choosing Ubuntu is logical and migrating from Windows 7 to Ubuntu is a breeze. This article summarizes the process and provides solutions to some of the most common beginner hiccups.
        
        The Windows Vs Mac Vs Linux debate has been going on for years and doesn’t look to be settled anytime soon. If you are a Windows 7 user and still haven’t made the switch to Windows 8, you may want to consider migrating to Ubuntu 14.04, the latest Linux distro from Ubuntu. In addition to strong support from developers and a massive software repository, it’s free, faster and safer than Windows.
      - Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) Enters Final Beta Freeze
        
        “As of nowish, the archive is frozen for 14.10 Final Beta preparation, and will continue to be frozen from here until Final release next month. As with the previous release, we have a bot in place that will accept uploads that are unseeded and don’t affect images. Don’t take this as an open invitation to break Feature Freeze on those components, this is just to reduce the burden on the release team, so we only review the uploads that need very serious consideration,” notes Canonical’s Adam Conrad.
      - Oracle and Canonical collaborate on support for Oracle Linux on Ubuntu
        
        Canonical and Oracle are collaborating to offer customers support for both Ubuntu and Oracle Linux as fully supported guests on one another’s respective OpenStack offerings.
        
        As part of this collaboration, Canonical will support Ubuntu as a guest OS on Oracle Linux OpenStack, and Oracle will support Oracle Linux as a guest OS on Ubuntu OpenStack. Canonical will test Oracle Linux as a guest OS in its OpenStack Interoperability Lab (OIL) program. This gives customers the assurance the configuration is tested and supported by both organisations.
      - Ubuntu Touch RTM released: Can it take on Android and iOS?
        
        Android and iOS have long been the two top dogs in the mobile world. But Canonical has been quietly brewing a competitor in the background that is almost ready to enter the mobile wars. Softpedia has a preview of the RTM version of Ubuntu Touch and finds that it’s already in very good shape.
Devices/Embedded
- Mentor Embedded Linux ready to roll on AMD SoCs
  
  Mentor Graphics has begun shipping Mentor Embedded Linux for AMD’s new Steppe Eagle, Crowned Eagle, and Bald Eagle G-Series and R-Series SoCs.
- Mentor Graphics Delivers Commercial Mentor Embedded Linux Platform and Graphics Enablement for AMD Embedded G-Series and R-Series Devices
- Wink adds touchscreen-based home automation hub
  
  The Relay runs a version of Android on an unstated processor, and duplicates the Wink Android app on its 4.3-inch multi-touch display. Wink lists only WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee as supported protocols, with no mention of Z-Wave or other wireless radios. However, Wink suggests the Relay replaces all features of the Hub, stating that “Relay will automatically connect with all Wink App Ready products, from light bulbs to garage door openers, as well as Wink App Compatible products that use the Wink Hub to connect.” The company also says that Relay supports 100 products from 15 trusted brands that already work with Wink.
- Phones
  - Ballnux
    - First beta of openSUSE 13.2 is here
      
      openSUSE team has announced the release of the first beta of openSUSE 13.2. The final release is scheduled for November. As usual 13.2 will bring the best experience and integration with two top desktop environments – KDE’s Plasma and Gnome.
    - openSUSE 13.2 Is Coming – First Beta Has Arrived!
    - openSUSE 13.2 Beta Still Using Btrfs By Default, & KDE Plasma 5 For Testing
    - OpenSUSE 13.2 Beta Has Been Released, Coming With KDE Plasma 5 By Default
    - Samsung News And Rumors: Smartphone Running Linux-Based Tizen Operating System Planned To Debut In India, Report Says
    - First Tizen phone now expected in India
      
      Samsung’s postponed Tizen Linux-based smartphone is now heading for a launch in India by the end of the year, reports India’s Economic Times.
    - Samsung ship SM-Z130H budget Tizen Smartphones to India for R&D Purposes
      
      According to a Zauba International shipping manifest, Samsung have shipped 150 of these units from South Korea to India for R&D and Evaluation purposes, which is a fair amount for an R&D unit to continue its work with. We have been tracking two budget Tizen based Smartphones lately, the SM-Z130H & SM-Z130E, with various parts being shipped to India every couple of months or so, but this is one of the largest shipments that we have seen so far.
    - [Wallpapers] Samsung Gear 2 / Gear 2 Neo and Galaxy Backgrounds Vol 26
  - Android
    - Android One: Let us fill you in on Google’s big game
      
      India is now the world’s third largest Internet market and “on a bullet train to become the second”. But even when we become the second with around 300 million Internet users, India would still have over 75 per cent of the population that has no access to this so-called information superhighway. It is this chunk of population that will form the “next billion” which companies like Nokia, and now Google, has been talking about. And it is this next billion that Google thinks will line up to buy and good smartphone that is also affordable.
    - Six Clicks: Androids Apps on Chromebooks
      
      Recently Google started making it possible to run Android apps on Chromebooks. For now, there are only four applications, but developers looking into the code have already found that porting their applications to Android on Chrome will require almost no effort.
    - MediaTek launches developer portal, debuts Android SDK
      
      MediaTek announced a Mediatek Labs hacker site, plus a MediaTek SDK for Android and a “LinkIt” RTOS that runs on an ARM-based, IoT-oriented “Aster” SoC.
    - 10 Android Smartphone Alternatives to the Apple iPhone 6
      
      Apple might not have the most mobile market share or sell the most units, but it can get more attention than any other mobile device maker. Year after year, it’s able to build anticipation for its latest products to a fever pitch. That has become abundantly apparent in the wake of the iPhone 6 launch. While there are still countless devices available that might in one way or another top the iPhone 6 in terms of features or price, it’s Apple’s product that generates the most hype. But now that the iPhone 6 is shipping, consumers who aren’t already totally committed to Apple’s products will go back to calmly considering in the clear light of day which product offers the best deal—the iPhone or one of the many handsets that run Android. This eWEEK slide show looks at 10 Android smartphones ranging from lower-cost units to the top-of-the-line flagship models that might prove to be suitable alternatives to the iPhone. From the Samsung Galaxy S5 to the Amazon Fire Phone, there are Android handsets that can suit any mobile phone buyer’s needs.
    - Run Android Apps on Mac, Windows, Linux
    - Sony Xperia Z3 crushes Apple’s iPhone 6 in battery test
      
      The media has been gushing nonstop over Apple’s iPhone 6, and many stories have appeared about the possibility of many Android users switching to Apple’s new phone. But one Android phone has blown away the iPhone 6 in battery tests. I mentioned the Sony Xperia Z3 in a roundup last week, and now Phone Arena has very good news about the phone’s battery life.
    - All bow to the new endurance king: Sony Xperia Z3 scores a record battery life for its category
      
      We are not going to mince words here – Sony is the current king of battery life when it comes to brand-name smartphones. We did our grueling battery benchmark on the Xperia Z3 over the weekend, and it broke all records in its respective category, just as we suspected it would do, given Sony’s consistent performance in that department this year.
    - New Features in Picasso
      
      I’ve always been a big fan of Picasso, the Android image loading library by the Square folks. It provides some powerful features with a rather simple API.
    - Kali NetHunter turns Android device into hacker Swiss Army knife
      
      One of the tools we’ve leaned on heavily in some of our lab testing of software privacy and security is Kali Linux. The Debian-based operating system comes packaged with a collection of penetration testing and network monitoring tools curated and developed by the security training company Offensive Security. Today, the Kali developer team and Offensive Security released a new Kali project that runs on a Google Nexus device. Called NetHunter, the distribution provides much of the power of Kali with the addition of a browser-driven set of tools that can be used to launch attacks on wireless networks or on unattended computers via a USB connection.

Free Software/Open Source

10 Reasons to use open source software defined networking

Software-defined networking (SDN) is emerging as one of the fastest growing segments of open source software (OSS), which in itself is now firmly entrenched in the enterprise IT world. SDN simplifies IT network configuration and management by decoupling control from the physical network infrastructure.
Open source is not dead

I don’t think you can compare Red Hat to other Linux distributions because we are not a distribution company. We have a business model on Enterprise Linux. But I would compare the other distributions to Fedora because it’s a community-driven distribution. The commercially-driven distribution for Red Hat which is Enterprise Linux has paid staff behind it and unlike Microsoft we have a Security Response Team. So for example, even if we have the smallest security issue, we have a guaranteed resolution pattern which nobody else can give because everybody has volunteers, which is fine. I am not saying that the volunteers are not good people, they are often the best people in the industry but they have no hard commitments to fixing certain things within certain timeframes. They will fix it when they can. Most of those people are committed and will immediately get onto it. But as a company that uses open source you have no guarantee about the resolution time. So in terms of this, it is much better using Red Hat in that sense. It’s really what our business model is designed around; to give securities and certainties to the customers who want to use open source.
Only FOSSers ‘Get’ FOSS

About a week later I got another email with the subject, “Did you receive my previous email?” It was Samantha again; she really, really thought that FOSS Force and her software selling partner would be a perfect fit. I remained unconvinced and again ignored the email, figuring that would be the last I’d hear from her. Most affiliate marketing companies don’t try to interest me more than twice for a particular client. After the second go, they’d usually rather wait until they have another client to use as bait on the hook.

Not Samatha. On Friday I received a third email. She was still wondering if I’d received her previous messages. She still thought FOSS Force would be a perfect fit for her client. “We sell retail, OEM and discounted versions of software titles from Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Corel, Intuit, McAfee, Symantec and many more,” she gushed.

Obviously she doesn’t understand FOSS or those of us who advocate its use. She’d probably seen the site, noticed a lot of writing about computers and software and jumped to the conclusion that we’d be great for her software hawking client. I wouldn’t doubt that she’d Googled the term “FOSS,” but got no further than the word “software” when reading the definition.

This time I broke down and sent a reply, thanking her for her interest in our site. Unfortunately, I explained, almost all of our visitors use Linux and most of your client’s software won’t even run on Linux. Besides, I went on, our site advocates the use of free and open source software and a large percentage of our visitors would take exception if we were to offer software by the likes of Microsoft or Apple, even if it would run on their machines. As for McAfee and Symantec, I explained, our visitors rarely need antivirus products.
Brocade Launches Commercial Vyatta OpenDaylight SDN Controller
Brocade Unveils Vyatta SDN Controller

The new controller, which will launch in November, is based on the upcoming “Helium” release from OpenDaylight.

Brocade in November will launch a software-defined networking controller based on the OpenDaylight Foundation’s upcoming “Helium” release and which will represent the vendor’s latest move to grow its Vyatta platform.
Brocade intros the open-source inspired Vyatta SDN controller

Brocade on Monday announced the release of the Vyatta Controller, a new keystone product within its SDN portfolio.
3 tools to make creating presentations easy

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of JavaScript presentation frameworks. These frameworks use HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to create presentation slides that can be viewed in any modern web browser. Gone are the days of being tied to using PowerPoint, nowadays there are a plethora of tools to choose from when it comes to creating a presentation.
Twitter engineer joins Mesosphere to push the open-source project he helped make

Inside an academic lab, Ben Hindman created key parts of Apache Mesos, an open-source tool for efficiently running lots of applications in data centers. He found himself at Twitter for four years, putting the system in place. But now he is doing what he arguably was destined to do: working on the project for a living to make it a standard everywhere.
Visualizing nanotechnology in 3D with open source software

Modern computers are built with nanotechnology. A processor contains billions of transistors, each around 14 nanometers. A single bit of information on a hard disc drive is confined to a 10 nanometer domain spinning on a disc 75 miles per hour. The accelerometers in our smartphones contain nano-springs that measure gravitational forces to determine orientation.
10 Reasons to use open source software defined networking
Major players join hands on open source
Reader Forum: Accelerating ‘IoT’ with an open-source, embedded platform for connected applications

Providing an end-to-end solution for building and deploying new connected applications extremely quickly, at scale, and at a fraction of the cost compared to conventional processes is key to streamlining M2M development. And, using an open-source, Linux-based platform, companies can run applications on any vendor’s hardware and use any cloud management platform.
7 killer open source monitoring tools

Network and system monitoring is a broad category. There are solutions that monitor for the proper operation of servers, network gear, and applications, and there are solutions that track the performance of those systems and devices, providing trending and analysis. Some tools will sound alarms and notifications when problems are detected, while others will even trigger actions to run when alarms sound. Here is a collection of open source solutions that aim to provide some or all of these capabilities.
Technology on a Diet: 5 Reasons to Embrace Open Source

Sharing information in the name of innovation isn’t anything new. Collaborative intelligence helped publish the Oxford English Dictionary, spur advances in 19th century science and powered the world’s first automobile. Even Ben Franklin insisted on donating his bifocals and lightning rod to the public domain, likely dubbing him America’s first open-source advocate. The notion of “open source” predates software and the Internet by centuries, yet many of today’s largest government IT shops are still reluctant to turn to open alternatives from proprietary software, even in the face of shrinking budgets, overworked staff and heightened citizen expectations.
Community at the speed of light: Best practices for the new era of open source

The methodology of open source development has come a long way in the past twenty years. It took the Linux kernel team eleven years to gain one hundred contributors in a month; it’s taken Ansible two years. Of course, the Linux community had to make up the methodology as they went along; the Ansible team has benefitted from years of studying and participating in Linux and other open source communities.
50 Noteworthy New Open Source Projects

The list also includes a potpourri of projects from other categories, including Web content management, software-defined networking, desktop publishing, games, IT management, electronic health records, operating systems and more. All of these apps were released for the first time within the last couple of years and most of them haven’t been featured on our lists in the past.
Events
- Florida is back on the Map for Linux and Open Source conventions with FOSSETCON 2
SaaS/Big Data
- Open Source OwnCloud Seeks to Combine Public, Private and Hybrid Clouds
  
  Over the past two years IT managers at the public research universities in Germany’s most populous state, Northrhine-Westfalia, have been researching how to build a private inter-university cloud. It will provide about 6 Petabytes of free-to-use storage to 500,000 affiliates of more than 30 public research and applied science universities in the region, Raimund Vogl, director of IT at Münster University wrote on Linux.com.
- HP Passes Red Hat as Leading Contributor to OpenStack
  
  It’s no secret that the list of companies backing the OpenStack cloud computing platform is growing mighty long. In fact, most analysts agree that that list has to be whittled down over time. But if you think you have a handle on which companies are the top contributors to OpenStack, you may find some surprises.
- Dealing with OpenStack’s growth, improving documentation, and more
- Can Marten Mickos make ‘Linux for the cloud’ work for HP?
  
  Hewlett-Packard didn’t just buy cloudy startup Eucalyptus Systems to build its fledgling OpenStack cloud biz, it also bought Marten Mickos, the firm’s Finnish CEO.
  
  HP isn’t the first to pay for Mickos’ expertise – that was Sun Microsystems, when it acquired his venture previous venture, MySQL AB, for $1bn in 2008.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- Oracle Growing Cloud Business Rapidly
  
  Larry Ellison announced on September 18 that he was stepping down as CEO of Oracle, but little will actually change at the company he has led for four decades. Ellison is now Oracle’s Chairman of the Board and CTO, while Mark Hurd and Safra Katz now jointly hold the CEO role.
CMS
- Is Your Small Business Website Like a Bad First Date?
  
  Open source platforms like Drupal and WordPress provide a backend framework that small businesses can use to build and customize their websites while managing key functions like registration, system administration, layout and RSS. Users can also create their own modules to enable new functions or change the website’s look and feel.
  
  Smaller companies can use open source content management systems (CMS) to reduce or eliminate the need for coding while delivering rich media online, including text, graphics, video and audio. They can use open source assets to create responsive design sites that optimize content for viewing across multiple device types, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, while eliminating the need to scroll from side to side.
  
  With open source tools available to help small businesses establish an online presence with robust front and backend functions quickly and affordably, there’s never been a better time to focus on content excellence. And the best way to do that is to concentrate on the customer. Engage with your target customers and find out what they value the most. Use that information to develop your content, and speak directly to your customers’ needs.
Education
- Bringing Literacy to Millions of Kids With Open Source
  
  This is a $15 million competition in which teams are challenged to create Open Source software that will teach a child to read, write, and perform arithmetic in 18 months without the aid of a teacher. This is not designed to replace teachers but to instead provide an educational solution where little or none exists.
- The XPrize Foundation announces $15-million open-source literacy prize
  
  I still wear my XPrize t-shirt for the first sub-orbital private manned spaceflight from Mojave Space Port. The XPrize Foundation is best known for this and other high-technology challenges such as the prizes to land a private robot on the moon and to create a true Star Trek style Tricorder. Now, the Foundation has turned its eyes closer to home with its new Global Learning XPrize.
Public Services/Government
- City of Turin to move to open source desktops
  
  The Italian city of Turin will switch to a complete open source desktop system, over the next 18 months. In August, the city administration decided to phase-out the current outdated proprietary system on its 8300 PCs and replace it by the Ubuntu open source alternative. Turin estimates the move will save some six million euro over the next five years.
Openness/Sharing
- Do-It-Yourself Google Glass: Here’s Augmented Reality, the Open Source Way
  
  For a few years now, we’ve heard about Google Glass, wearable technology that essentially brings the functionality available on a smartphone to a pair of eyeglasses.
- Oculus releases the Rift DK1 source code, schematics as open source
- Oculus Rift developer kit now open source
- Top 5 articles of the week: Open source tasks, open data apps, and open source in education
- WikiHouse Unveils World’s First Two-Storey Open-Source House at London Design Festival
- Open source WikiHouse 4.0 on display at London Design Festival
  
  WikiHouse has unveiled the world’s first open source, digitally printed two-storey home as part of this year’s London Design Festival.
Programming
- PyPy 2.4 – Snow White
  
  PyPy is a very compliant Python interpreter, almost a drop-in replacement for CPython 2.7. It’s fast (pypy 2.4 and cpython 2.7.x performance comparison) due to its integrated tracing JIT compiler.

Leftovers

Critics lambaste choices for European Commission technology positions

Oettinger has no experience in the area he has been nominated for, Reda said. And by appointing Ansip, the Commission is getting a vice president who has been an advocate for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which threatened digital rights of European citizens, she added. The Commission gave up its fight on behalf of the controversial antipiracy trade pact in 2012.
Science
- 50 years of Moog, the analog synth that still beats 1s and 0s
  
  This time last year, I walked into a Toronto store called Moog Audio and walked out with a Teenage Engineering OP-1—a curious little portable digital synthesizer that looks, at first glance, like a child’s toy. It has a row of just four candy-colored knobs as primary input controls, and there are only enough keys for an octave-and-a-half’s worth of range. But damn does it ever sound cool. Its tiny OLED screen uses all sorts of clever visual conceits to convey otherwise complex audio transformations. Colors and animations explain the differences between synthesizer engines, changes to modulation and frequency, and attack and decay. And it’s done in a way that’s easy for anyone with little synthesizer knowledge to understand while still being powerful in more experienced hands. This is a synthesizer, drum machine, and four-track recorder all-in-one—all in a device that fits inside a purse or messenger bag with ease.
Security
- CipherShed: A replacement for TrueCrypt
  
  While the Open Crypt Audit Project, headed by cryptographer Matthew Green and Kenneth White, Principal Scientist at Social & Scientific Systems, has been considering whether to take over the development of TrueCrypt and is working on the second phase of the audit process (a thorough analysis of the code responsable for the actual encryption process), one of TrueCrypt’s developers has expressed his disapproval of a project that would fork the software.
- Google to turn on encryption by default in next Android version
  
  Google is turning on data encryption by default in the next version of Android, a step that mirrors broad moves in the technology industry to ensure better data security.
  
  Android has been capable of encryption for more than three years, with the keys stored on the device, according to a Google spokesman.
- Security advisories for Monday
- Tuesday’s security updates
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- Podcast: As Congress Buys Into More War, CODEPINK Becomes the Conscience of America
  
  The past week was filled with officials coming before members of Congress to sell President Barack Obama’s strategy for escalating war in Iraq and Syria. It worked. Congress approved the arming and training of rebel forces in Syria to fight ISIS. However, this did not take place without members of Congress hearing some voices of dissent loud and clear.
  
  CODEPINK Women for Peace managed to convince a group of people to be at almost all of the hearings on combating ISIS. They held up pink signs that could be seen behind officials like Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry. The group even provoked a lecture from Kerry, who scolded them for protesting the administration’s war plans.
- Terrorism and drones change struggles for peace
  
  Professor Lowell Ewert, director of Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College
  
  “Events in the world today profoundly demonstrate how violence begets violence. It is impossible to kill one’s way to peace. What is needed is a new paradigm of mutual respect, human rights, affirmation of the dignity of everyone, which is formed and strengthened through education.”
- Pictures from My War
  
  The photo was taken just after the U.S. invasion of Iraq had concluded. We’d missed the initial combat, but within the next eighteen months Doug would fight in the First Battle of Fallujah and I would fight in the Second. Both of us would be wounded. Doug was decorated for his valor, and a much-circulated profile of him ran in the Los Angeles Times, headlined “The Unapologetic Warrior.” When he was asked about the intense fighting he’d seen in April, 2004, he replied with characteristic bombast. “I’ve told [my troops] that killing is not wrong if it’s for a purpose, if it’s to keep your nation free or to protect your buddy,” he said. “One of the most noble things you can do is kill the enemy.” Doug often said things like that, and he believed them. I’d anchored myself in his mentorship because of his unshakable faith in being a Marine. Combat made more sense when you held to those kinds of precepts, and when they felt true.
  
  [...]
  
  When I look at the photo, I can’t help but think that Suleimani would recognize the irony that his victory was due in part to the very U.S. air power that his surrogates had once dodged in Sadr City, where Doug was killed. I doubt he would be aware of a further irony—that his surveillance drones were taking off right next to Zembiec Landing Zone. Given that America’s wars are no longer punctuated by clear declarations of victory or defeat, the photo seemed an appropriate bookend to my memory of the conflict in Iraq. With American planes once again flying sorties there, and with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speculating about the deployment of ground troops, it may also mark, for someone else, a beginning.
- The new military morality: Can the principles of Just War have meaning in today’s world?
  
  War has changed in recent decades. Once, it was about opposing armies facing off across a battlefield. But in the “war on terror”, one side attacks with air strikes and drones that can be operated by an Air Force lieutenant in Nevada, putting in a 9am-5pm shift before going home for dinner with his wife and kids. And the other side responds by chopping the heads off journalists and aid workers – and is now threatening to do the same to a taxi driver from Salford whose only crime was to deliver nappies and baby food to refugees in a far-off land. We have entered a new and thorny thicket in the military moral maze.
  
  [...]
  
  So where lies justice in our modern wars? We clearly have to rethink the rules to reflect our changed reality. But in doing that, we must not throw away the ethical constraints of the classical tradition. We must not sacrifice our openness to self-criticism by becoming trapped in a self-referential morality. Democracies may be at a disadvantage when it comes to terrorism. But we will be even more disadvantaged if we throw away the values on which democracy rests in our determination to win.
- MoD facing legal challenge over armed drone deployment outside Afghanistan
  
  News comes amid claims RAF’s Reaper squadron could operate against jihadists in the Middle East
- Drone Vet Speaks Out: Killer Crafts More Deadly Than Government Admits
  
  An insider in the U.S. military’s covert drone war has confirmed what critics of the killing program have long-warned: the program is far more “dangerous” than the government admits.
  
  In an op-ed published in Salon on Tuesday, the unnamed former Air Force imagery analyst writes, “I was the only line of defense between keeping someone alive and providing the intelligence for a strike using technology not accurate enough to determine life and death.”
- ‘Obamastein’ is no Machiavelli
  
  President Obama seems poised to declare war on the world. American policy in 2014 has taken on a “zombie-like” feverishness aimed at war. Terror has been turned into a horror gag reel these days, as Washington acts out some fetish for chaos in our world. And for those who consider Obama a Machiavellian genius, this requires a massive intellect. A modern day political Frankenstein seems more apt.
- Bill Clinton: Hillary Was Right About Arming Syrian Rebels
  
  Former president Bill Clinton told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that he agreed with Hillary Clinton that the Obama administration should have taken the chance years ago of arming Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Assad.
  
  He said she lost the argument “within the administration and she admitted then and acknowledged in her book that she can’t know that if her recommendation had been followed, it would have worked. That’s one of those things you can’t know,” said Clinton. “That’s why all of these decisions are hard,” according to CNN.
- Ron Paul – Congress Votes for More War in the Middle East
  
  Last week, the House and Senate voted to rubber stamp President Obama’s war plans for the Middle East. Both bodies, on a bipartisan basis, authorized the US to begin openly training and arming the rebels who have been fighting for three years to overthrow the Assad government in Syria.
- Former Pentgon chief Leon Panetta says Barack Obama should have armed moderate Syrian rebels earlier
- Fmr. Defense Sec. Panetta: Obama Should Have Already Armed Syrian Rebels
- Clinton backs Clinton on Syria; defends Obama
- Op-Ed: Troubles continue in Libya as clashes threaten oil production
- The Power and the Peril of Oil author Firooz Eftekhar Zadeh
  
  The Power and the Peril of Oil is Firooz Zadeh’s passionately written account about how oil has given strength and empowered some countries while it has imperiled others. It documents the history, politics, and players in the quest for dominance of the Middle East and its highly prized resource.
- The Lunacy of Sanctions and the Psychosis of US Exceptionalism
  
  Sanctions, sanctions and more sanctions! Every day we are subjected to an onslaught of stories and reports about how western countries, Europe, certain Asian countries and their master across the Atlantic are imposing new and ever more expanded and devious sanctions against Russia, its leaders, its businesses, industries, entire segments of the financial sector and other parts of the Russian world, even Japan has jumped on the sanctions wagon to show “support” for the hegemon across the Pacific, yet no one stops to question or stand up and say “Wait! All of these sanctions are based on lies.”
- US says IC could have prevented Sri Lanka’s civilian deaths – If US hadn’t invaded Iraq 1.5m Iraqi’s would be alive today!
- US is insincere about stopping ISIS
  
  During the 1980s, the CIA helped arm and train Osama Bin Laden and his mujahideen in Afghanistan in response to the Soviet invasion, which became a way for the mujahideen to give the USSR “their Vietnam.” Bin Laden’s goal was to bleed the USSR dry of its money and resources; it worked. The USSR soon crumbled and Bin Laden’s new target became his former ally, the U.S. Bin Laden’s new goal was to have the U.S. become involved in the region in the same capacity the USSR had; this also worked. After over a decade of the War on Terror, the U.S. claims to have decimated al-Qaeda and its leadership, with the biggest blow coming when they finally took out Bin Laden. Now, new enemy ISIS has become the U.S.’s biggest concern. ISIS has been moving through Iraq killing tons of innocent people in their path. ISIS must be stopped, but we must ask, how did they become so powerful and, knowing what we do about the history of U.S. involvement in the region, what is the best course of action to take in stopping them?
  
  [...]
  
  Chelsea Manning, the jailed Wikileaks whistleblower, recently stated in an op-ed on ISIS that the U.S. should let ISIS die out on its own. The only way for this to happen is if the U.S. stays out of the fight and stops supplying arms to rebels. If the U.S. were sincere about stopping ISIS, they would stop arming rebels. But the U.S. is not sincere; this is not about stopping ISIS. This is about the profits of Boeing, Raytheon, and the entire weapons industrial complex. The U.S. must do what’s best, stop supplying weapons that are only helping to escalate violence and embolden the enemy. Only then will we see ISIS die out.
- Iraqis suspect CIA and jihadis are united
  
  US air strikes against the ISIS for more than a month appears to have done little to tamp down the conspiracy theories still circulating from the streets of Baghdad to the highest levels of Iraqi government that the CIA is secretly behind the same extremists that it is now attacking.
- Was ISIS Created By The CIA? Many Arabs Think So
- When The U.S. Backs Rebels, It Doesn’t Often Go As Planned
  
  As the U.S. steps up arms and training, Syria’s “moderate” rebels are joining a long line of resistance movements the Americans have backed over the decades, from Angola to Afghanistan.
  
  The high-water mark was President Reagan’s administration in the 1980s, when the U.S. supplied weapons to three rebel groups on three separate continents in Cold War proxy fights designed to undermine the Soviet Union.
- Looking back at secret war in Afghanistan
  
  In the Reagan 1980s, I often attended the annual gatherings of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Several days of meetings featuring speeches by the most influential (domestic) thinkers on the right were capped off by a formal dinner that was often attended by President and Mrs. Reagan.
- The Myth of Syria’s Moderate Rebels
  
  Political Islam has a long history of cooperating with Western imperialism at certain times and in certain places, and of turning against it at other times and in other places. For example, Osama bin Laden cooperated with the United States to overthrow a progressive pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan, and then launched a jihad against the domination of the Middle East by the United States. Many Palestinians were sent to Afghanistan in the 1980s by the Muslim Brotherhood to struggle against the atheists in Kabul (much to the delight of Israel) only to return to join a Palestinian national liberation struggle against Israel in the ranks of Hamas.
  
  What separates the rebels in Syria that the United States and its allies arm, train, fund and direct from those it seeks to degrade and ultimately destroy is not a secular vs. Islamist orientation. Even the so-called “moderate” rebels are under the sway of Islamist thinking. Instead the dividing line between the good “moderate” rebels and the bad “extremist” rebels is willingness to cooperate with the United States and the region’s former colonial powers. The “good” ones are under the control of the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies, or aren’t, but are working in directions that comport with Western foreign policy goals, while the “bad” ones are working in ways that frustrate the attainment of the foreign policy objectives of the West. In other words, one set of rebels is cooperating with Western imperialism while the other frustrates it.
  
  The “moderate” Syrian rebels who US officials are counting on to battle the Islamic State as part of the Obama administration’s plan to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS comprise dozens of groups which report directly to the CIA [1] and are under the sway of Islamist thinking. [2] According to General Abdul-Ilah al Bashir, who led the Free Syrian Army before its collapse at the end of last year, the CIA has taken over direction of the rebel force and FSA groups now report directly to US intelligence. [3]
- Neocons Grow Frantic over Iran Progress
  
  With an agreement on constraining Iran’s nuclear program within reach, Official Washington’s neocons are getting apoplectic about the need to rev up new animosities toward Iran, an approach not helpful to real U.S. security needs, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar notes.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Slate Exclusive: Why Greenland’s “Dark Snow” Should Worry You
  
  The photos he took this summer in Greenland are frightening. But their implications are even more so. Just like black cars are hotter to the touch than white ones on sunny summer days, dark ice melts much more quickly.
Finance
- Linda Tirado: ‘It was insane. I got 20,000 emails in a week’
  
  In your book you say the rich are afraid of the poor. Do you think fear played a part in the media’s treatment of you?
  
  In America we have this myth that if you deserve it, you will have it. We’re afraid to look at our downtrodden because it undercuts that myth. There is a fear of the poor that is uniquely American. It’s especially hard to look at someone who could be one of their kids – someone like me who’s white and intelligent – and see them as poor. When the crash happened, there was a panic among the rich because suddenly wealth wasn’t only to do with how hard you’d worked. It could be taken away! They got really fearful. So much of Americans’ self-image is based on what we own and how we present ourselves.
- On the Trail of Nazi Counterfeiters
  
  On Thursday, the CIA declassified hundreds of files from its in-house journal, Studies in Intelligence, after a successful Freedom of Information Act request from a former employee, resulting in a bonanza of fascinating and downright weird tales from the history of the CIA from the 1970s through the 2000s. Among the hundreds of files, available here, we found this intriguing tale of Nazi plans to destabilize the American and British economies in the final days of the Third Reich.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Hidden Interests, Closer to Home
  
  THE article ran above the fold on the front page early this month, a Times investigation into the influence of foreign money within American research organizations.
  
  It reported that more than a dozen think tanks “have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities.” It warned of the danger of that big money, which it said was “increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington.”
- Google Says ALEC Is Literally Lying about Climate Change, Ends Membership
  
  Google chairman Eric Schmidt said Monday that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is “literally lying” that climate change is not a reality, and that its membership in ALEC “was some sort of mistake.”
Privacy
- Judge OKs serving legal papers via Facebook
  
  Social-media users, beware — that next Facebook “poke” could be from a process server.
  
  In a groundbreaking court ruling, a Staten Island man got permission to use Facebook to serve his ex-wife legal notice that he doesn’t want to pay any more child support.
  
  A Family Court official ruled that Noel Biscocho could use Facebook to serve Anna Maria Antigua because other, more traditional methods to slap her with papers have not worked.
- Statement on the Use of Finfisher by Members of the Freedom Online Coalition
  
  Documents recently released by WikiLeaks have brought new evidence to the public eye that the intrusive surveillance spyware FinFisher may be in use by several members of the Freedom Online Coalition, including Mongolia, Netherlands, and Estonia.
- ‘Normale Leute’ vs NSA spying: meet Germany’s ‘average’ data protesters
  
  Normale Leute: a Berlin-based group wants to fight data protection protest prejudices – and government spying – by demonstrating in suits. “Akkurater Widerstand” reject anonymous masks to appear “normal.”
- When Does Google Hand Over Your Data To Governments?
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt linked with Edward Snowden role for Oliver Stone
  
  Oliver Stone is set to make a film of Edward Snowden’s story, and is targeting Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star…
- National parliaments raise the pressure on data protection
  
  Parliamentary delegations from 16 different EU member states have called upon the EU to rapidly adopt the legislative package on the protection of personal data.
  
  The EU must act swiftly on the protection of personal data. This is the clear message sent by elected representatives of 16 EU member states, assembled in Paris for an interparliamentary meeting.
- Why the NSA has no right to recruit on campus—or anywhere (video)
  
  The first big revelation of NSA criminality in the modern era came from the New York Times’ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, who revealed the NSA was warantlessly wiretapping over 30 million Americans, or roughly one in every ten citizens of the country.
- 5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks
  
  On August 11, former NSA head Michael Hayden, the man at the center of the Bush administration’s 2005 surveillance scandal, was defending his former agency on CBS News in the wake of the latest NSA spying scandal. Commenting on President Obama’s half-hearted promises to reform some NSA practices, Hayden told host Bob Schieffer that “the President is trying to take some steps to make the American people more comfortable about what it is we’re doing. That’s going to be hard because, frankly, Bob, some steps to make Americans more comfortable will actually make Americans less safe.”
  
  Former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff had a similar message when he appeared on ABC News August 4. Speaking about the purported threat from an Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen that led to the closure of 19 U.S. embassies, Chertoff said that “the collection of this warning information [about Al Qaeda] came from the kinds of programs we’ve been discussing about, the ability to capture communications overseas.”
  
  CBS and ABC did not see fit to inform viewers that both Hayden and Chertoff are employees of the Chertoff Group, a private firm created in 2009 that companies hire to consult on best practices for security and combatting terrorism. Some of the companies the firm advises go on to win government contracts. Chertoff is the founder and chairman of the group, while Hayden serves as a principal. So they profit off a war on terror they say is crucial to keeping Americans safe.
- What we talk about when we talk about sexting
  
  Like most trends involving nudity, sexting was also started by the most despicable group of people in the world: teenagers. Now, I didn’t actually speak to a real live teen person for this piece. I wouldn’t wish such a fate even on my worst enemy. Instead, I watched an episode of a “reality” show on MTV and accidentally spent ten seconds in the vicinity of a car that was playing a Justin Beiber song. So, by the conventions of the Indian Columnists Association, I am now considered a bonafide expert on #teens and their psychology. In fact, in some circles I’m known as a teen whisperer. Sure, none of those circles exist outside my head, but as a wise fellow once said, it’s the thought that counts.
- Snowden’s claims no big surprise
  
  The obvious conclusion to draw from these claims is firstly that the NSA can peer into the databases of Facebook, Amazon, Google (for Gmail) and other large American corporations. Slightly disturbing perhaps, but hardly surprising or news.
- BFI London Film Festival Announces UK Premiere of ‘Citizenfour’
- Israel ramps up cyber defense with new national body
  
  Israel is stepping up its cyber-defense efforts. The government on Sunday announced establishment of a new cyber-defense authority to coordinate cyber-security efforts among government, industry, and the civilian sectors. Just last year, it set up the National Cyber Bureau and the two steps show that the nation is taking cyber threats seriously, now that it’s a favorite target for politically motivated hackers.
- ORG Manchester surveillance debate 21-Sep-14 report
- Snowden: New Zealand Is Spying, Too
  
  Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden warned New Zealanders in a media blitz on Monday that all of their private emails, phone calls and text messages are being spied on despite government denials.
- Google nixes G+ requirement for Gmail accounts
  
  The grand unbundling of Google’s G+ social network continues, with Gmail becoming the latest Google service to gain its independence from Google’s campaign of forced integration. As noted in a post on the WordStream Blog, Google has axed the requirement that new Gmail accounts be tied to a G+ social networking account as of “early September.”
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Russia eyes measures to fend off Western Internet threat: Kremlin
  
  Russia must think about protecting its Internet against threats from the West, a Kremlin spokesman said on Friday, in comments that one prominent critic said could herald moves to control all web-based data exchanges with the rest of the world.
- Russia plans to cut off wires to Internet, says want to protect itself from the West
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - Could Taking A Selfie In A Museum Violate Copyright Law?
    
    Copyright infringement is everywhere. A few years back, John Tehranian wrote a paper (and then a book*) called “Infringement Nation” about just how much copyright infringement happens incidentally on a daily basis. The conclusion, from a back of the envelope estimate, is that an average person is likely liable for $4.544 billion in incidental infringement in a normal year. And that’s not for sharing music and movies and what not, but just doing the normal everyday things you do.
  - Why Record Labels Want Kim Dotcom’s Album Taken Down
  - BPI Hits Record Breaking 100 Million Google Takedowns
    
    The BPI has reached a new milestone in its ongoing efforts to have pirated content removed from the Internet. This week the music industry group reported its 100 millionth URL to Google. Although the takedown notices are processed quickly, the music industry group believes that Google should do more to prevent piracy.
  - “The Letter” Is Still The Best Story To Explain Why Copyright Monopoly Must Be Reduced
    
    People are still getting distracted by the silly question of “how somebody will get paid” if the copyright monopoly is reduced. It’s irrelevant, it’s a red herring. What this debate is about is bringing vital civil liberties along from the analog environment into the digital – and that requires allowing file-sharing all out.
  - Anti-Piracy Police Begin Targeting eBook Pirates
    
    After very publicly taking down a number of sites offering music, movies and TV shows without permission, City of London Police appear to have taken down their first ebook-related domain. OnRead is now under police investigation but according to its operators the site operated legally. That seems unlikely, however.
    
    [...]
    
    While it seems more than likely that OnRead was operating without licenses recognized by UK publishers, an archive of the domain reveals that the site’s operators tried to claim that in at least one jurisdiction the site had operated legally.

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/09/23/fedora-21-alpha/feed/ 0 Links 17/9/2014: CoreOS, ChromeOS, and systemd http://techrights.org/2014/09/17/systemd/ http://techrights.org/2014/09/17/systemd/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2014 22:33:36 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=79400

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

CoreOS: Open Source Future of Enterprise Computing?

GNU/Linux is winning pretty much everywhere these days – well, aside from the desktop. On supercomputers, mobiles and embedded devices it dominates completely, but in the world of enterprise computing, where it has certainly done well, there’s room for it to take further market share. How might it do that? One of the huge advantages that free software has over traditional closed source programs is that new companies can take existing code and come up with exciting new solutions very quickly, without the need for massive and long drawn-out research and development programs.
Desktop
- Wireless Charging coming to Google Chromebooks?
  
  Wireless charging, a concept popularized by Android-powered smartphones, is fast picking up. Even Apple, which was known for ‘introducing’ revolutionary new technologies under Steve Jobs’ leadership, is now in the game of catching up with Android and offered wireless charging for the Apple Watch which will arrive next year.
- ChromeOS vs Linux: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  
  Anyone who believes Google isn’t “making a play” for desktop users isn’t paying attention. In recent years, I’ve seen ChromeOS making quite a splash on the Google Chromebook. Exploding with popularity on sites such as Amazon.com, it looks as if ChromeOS could be unstoppable.
  
  In this article, I’m going to look at ChromeOS as a concept to market, how it’s affecting Linux adoption and whether or not it’s a good/bad thing for the Linux community as a whole. Plus, I’ll talk about the biggest issue of all and how no one is doing anything about it.
- Why the Convergent Desktop is So Important to Linux
  
  There is one truth that all the Linux faithful hold near and dear to their hearts — that Linux is a leader when it comes to innovation. No other platform has been able to stake that claim for such a long period of time. Even when a different platform unveils something new, many times that innovation can be traced back to Linux.
  
  One such technology is the convergent desktop. The idea behind the convergent desktop is simple — a seamless transition from mobile to desktop (or laptop). This all started, for better or worse, with Ubuntu Edge. The idea behind Ubuntu Edge was brilliant: A high-end smartphone that, when plugged into a dock, would serve as a traditional desktop. Although the project ultimately failed (due to an inability to raise the $32 million dollars necessary to bring Ubuntu Edge to life), the idea stuck and now every platform is in a race to deliver the convergent desktop.
Server
- Speed or torque? Linux desktop vs. server distros
  
  So allow me to clarify: I believe the time has come when a major, dedicated, server-only Linux distribution is needed. This distribution does not maintain any desktop packages or dependencies — and is not a distro that merely offers a different default package set for desktop and server use cases.
- Taking stock of Linux – maturation continues
Kernel Space
- ACPI, kernels and contracts with firmware
  
  This ends up being a pain in the neck in the x86 world, but it could be much worse. Way back in 2008 I wrote something about why the Linux kernel reports itself to firmware as “Windows” but refuses to identify itself as Linux. The short version is that “Linux” doesn’t actually identify the behaviour of the kernel in a meaningful way. “Linux” doesn’t tell you whether the kernel can deal with buffers being passed when the spec says it should be a package. “Linux” doesn’t tell you whether the OS knows how to deal with an HPET. “Linux” doesn’t tell you whether the OS can reinitialise graphics hardware.
- 23 Years of Terrible Linux Predictions
  
  Twenty-three years old. That got me thinking, “That means Linux will be 25 years old in just two years. A quarter of a century. What will happen to Linux between now and then? I should write down my predictions in an article and send it over to those swell chaps at Linux.com.”
- systemd for Developers I
  
  A service capable of socket activation must be able to receive its preinitialized sockets from systemd, instead of creating them internally. For most services this requires (minimal) patching. However, since systemd actually provides inetd compatibility a service working with inetd will also work with systemd — which is quite useful for services like sshd for example.
- Graphics Stack
  - Intel Userptr Support Added To Mesa’s DRM Library
    
    With the Linux 3.16 kernel is Intel graphics driver support for Userptr, allows user-space to wrap up malloc’ed memory and turn them into GEM buffer objects. Besides the Intel DDX support, there’s now userptr support within Mesa’s DRM library.
  - RadeonSI GLAMOR Benchmarks With X.Org Server 1.16
    
    With X.Org Server 1.16 having landed in Ubuntu 14.10, it’s time for some benchmarks comparing the 1.15 and 1.16 releases on Ubuntu while using the GLAMOR 2D acceleration library.
    
    For some basic X.Org 2D benchmarks I tested a Radeon HD 7950 and R7 260X while running various Linux 2D desktop benchmarks on Ubuntu 14.10 with the Linux 3.16 kernel and Mesa 10.4-devel. In testing the two graphics cards, I was using X.Org Server 1.15.1 that was previously found in the Ubuntu Utopic archive and then switched to X.Org Server 1.16.0 with the rebuilt DDX driver packages too.
  - Graphics Driver Changes Coming In The Linux 3.18 Kernel
    
    While the Linux 3.17 kernel isn’t being released for a few weeks, we already have a good idea for the DRM graphics driver improvements coming for the Linux 3.18 cycle.
- Benchmarks
  - SNA & UXA Intel Benchmarks With X.Org Server 1.16
    
    In complementing this morning’s Radeon GLAMOR X.Org Server 1.16 benchmarks compared against X.Org Server 1.15, here’s some benchmarks of the xf86-video-intel DDX with the 1.15 and 1.16 server releases via the Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic archive. SNA and UXA were the acceleration methods tested for this article, which are contained within the xf86-video-intel DDX rather than the xorg-server code-base, but still there’s some performance changes to note.
Applications
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - digiKam Software Collection 4.3.0 released…
    
    After a long bugs triage, we have worked hard also to close your reported issues.. A long list of the issues closed in digiKam 4.3.0 is available through the KDE Bugtracking System.
  - digiKam Software Collection 4.3.0 Features Has New Option For Geo-Located Images
  - Reprise of Akademy 2014: KCM for network manager
  - LaKademy 2014
    
    From August 27th to 30th, 2014, nearly sixteen KDE lovers met in the 2nd LaKademy – The KDE Latin America Summit. The sprint took place in the Free Software Competence Center (CCSL) at University of São Paulo (USP) in southeast Brazil.
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - GNOME 3.14 Makes More Progress In Running Natively On Wayland
    
    Red Hat developer Matthias Clasen has shared a status update concerning the state of running the GNOME Shell desktop natively on Wayland without any X11 dependence. With GNOME 3.14, more progress has been made in making the Wayland experience really usable. Clasen also shares that Red Hat is hiring another Wayland developer.
  - Files (Nautilus) 3.14 RC1 Features Better Toolbar Styling with GTK+ 3.14
    
    The GNOME developers behind the Nautilus project (now known as Files) have announced that version 3.14 RC1 has been released and is now available for download and testing.
Distributions
- New Releases
  - Clonezilla Live 2.2.4-12 Stable Release Arrives with Linux Kernel 3.16.2
    
    Clonezilla Live, a Linux distribution based on DRBL, Partclone, and udpcast that allows users to do bare metal backup and recovery, has reached version 2.2.4-12 and is now available for download.
- PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
  - Initial impressions of PCLinuxOS 2014.08
    
    I spend more time looking at the family trees of Linux distributions than I do looking at my own family tree. I find it interesting to see how distributions grow from their parent distribution, either acting as an extra layer of features which regularly re-bases itself or as a separate fork. New distributions usually tend to remain similar in most ways to their parent distro, using the same package manager and maintaining similar philosophies. When I look at the family trees of Linux distributions one project stands out more than others: PCLinuxOS.
- Red Hat Family
  - Open source training and the Red Hat Challenge Labs
    
    Open source training is a powerful tool, and the skills and experiences learned can be immediately applied to numerous real-world working situations. The use of a stable and flexible foundation means open source can be adapted to situations as required, making challenges easy to overcome.
    
    Red Hat Challenge@Labs is a strong starting point for students, as they have the opportunity to design solutions for real problems and issues—and, if they’re successful, pitch them to industry experts.
  - Fedora
    - Fedora Notifications, 0.3.0 Release
      
      Just as a heads up, a new release of the Fedora Notifications app (FMN) was deployed today (version 0.3.0).
      
      Frontend Improvements
      Negated Rules – Individual rules (associated with a filter) can now be negated. This means that you can now write a rule like: “forward me all messages mentioning my username except for meetbot messages and those secondary arch koji builds.”
      
      Disabled Filters – Filters can now be disabled instead of just deleted, thus letting you experiment with removing them before committing to giving them the boot.
- Debian Family
  - OpenMediaVault 1.0 review
    
    OpenMediaVault is a NAS/SAN Linux distribution that I first wrote about on this site back in January 2013. That was when the version 0.4.11 was released.
    
    The latest version, a milestone release, is OpenMediaVault 1.0. It is based on Debian 7 and uses that distribution’s ncurses installer, just like Ubuntu server.
    
    This is a distribution you want to use if you are looking for an easy-to-use and feature-rich solution to set up a NAS for yourself. The browser-based management interface on this latest edition is a lot better than the one that shipped with previous editions. And it is also responsive.
  - FSF, Debian join to promote free software-compatible hardware
    
    In contrast to other databases that list hardware that is technically compatible with GNU/Linux, h-node only lists hardware that will not require any proprietary software of firmware to work with free software operating systems.
  - If this goes well I have a new blog engine
    
    Assuming this post shows up then I’ll have successfully migrated from Chronicle to a temporary replacement.
    
    Chronicle is awesome, and despite a lack of activity recently it is not dead. (No activity because it continued to do everything I needed for my blog.)
    
    Unfortunately though there is a problem with chronicle, it suffers from a bit of a performance problem which has gradually become more and more vexing as the nubmer of entries I have has grown.
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Canonical, AMD join hands to offer OpenStack Private Cloud in a Box
        
        AMD has partnered with Canonical to offer OpenStack private cloud to customers. The solution offers high-end hardware – a SeaMicro SM15000 server – running Ubuntu LTS 14.04 and OpenStack.
      - AMD and Canonical create OpenStack in a rack
        
        A few months ago, Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, had an unexpected hit on its hands: the Ubuntu Orange Box. This OpenStack cloud in a box, although made from consumer-grade components, was the star of May’s OpenStack Summit.
      - First Ubuntu Touch smartphone due before 2015
        
        Mozilla, with its Firefox OS, isn’t the only player aiming to offer a reliable, competitive and affordable alternative to Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Ubuntu Touch, the mobile operating system developed by Canonical, will make its debut this December on a version of the forthcoming Meizu MX4 smartphone, according to a post on the Chinese manufacturer’s Italian blog.
      - AMD, Canonical Deliver Ubuntu-based OpenStack Server Solution
      - Ubuntu Touch phone to debut this year
      - First Ubuntu Touch smartphone due before 2015
        
        Mozilla, with its Firefox OS, isn’t the only player aiming to offer a reliable, competitive and affordable alternative to Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Ubuntu Touch, the mobile operating system developed by Canonical, will make its debut this December on a version of the forthcoming Meizu MX4 smartphone, according to a post on the Chinese manufacturer’s Italian blog.
      - Libav Upstream Update Makes Its Way in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
        
        A number of Libav vulnerabilities have been identified and fixed in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) and an update has been issued for the operating system.
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Are the Linux Mint developers using sexist codenames?
        
        If there is any sexism on the part of the Linux Mint developers it’s probably a kind of reverse sexism. Some might wonder why they haven’t chosen any male codenames for Linux Mint. I have no idea why, nor do I really care. But I’m sure there are folks out there who might regard it as a bit misandric.
        
        Maybe Linux Mint 18 should have the codename Bob or Steve or…some other male name? Hey, wait a minute…how about Jim? That would be a great codename! I can see it in the review headlines now: “Linux Mint 18 Jim rocks the open source world!” Are you listening, Linux Mint developers?
        
        All kidding aside, I really don’t care what developers use for codenames. Let them use male names, female names, animal names or some other kind of name. And I suspect that most people probably feel the same way. After all, the features and improvements in each software release are what we care about, not the informal naming conventions used by developers.
Devices/Embedded
- Phones
  - Android
    - A guy put Moto 360 in water for 30 minutes and it survived
      
      Moto 360, the smartwatch by Motorola, has set really high bar for smart-watches not only in design but also in durability. It’s unfair to even compare it to Apple Watch which we won’t see till next year (any by that time Android watches would have moved forward to the next generation leaving Apple behind to catch-up).
    - Android powered Nvidia Shield tablet now available for pre-order
      
      Nvidia’s 32GB LTE Shield Tablet is now available for pre-order. The Linux/Android powered tablet is priced at $399 and comes with an 8″ (1,920 x 1,200) display, Tegra K1 CPU and 2GB of RAM.
    - Android users have the last laugh about large screen phones
      
      I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that Apple’s customers are buying the iPhone 6 so rabidly because of its larger screen sizes. One of the dumbest things Apple ever did was cling to smaller screens for so long. It completely ceded the larger screen phone market to Samsung and numerous other Android manufacturers.
    - MIPS-based Android Wear watch starts at $125
      
      A “Com 1″ Indiegogo project is the first Android Wear smartwatch to use a Ingenics MIPS SoC. The watch offers IP67 waterproofing, WiFi, and a $125 price.
    - Lets Discuss the iPhone 6 Models – Apple now in ‘me-too’ mode only following the leaders
      
      …the iPhone market share has been falling…
      
      …Today Samsung sells twice the number of smartphones as Apple
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Give new life to old phones and tablets with these tips!
    
    If you’re like me (and you’re a Linux Journal reader, so you may actually be like me), you probably rotate through your cell phones and/or tablets every couple years. These little devices are so convenient and have been consistently dropping in price, while their power continues to go up, so you may have a few older devices sitting in a drawer. Thank Moore’s Law for that—but what can you do with your old devices? There are a couple obvious things to do with old devices: some phone carriers allow you to “trade up”, or you can hand them down to your kids or friends. However, there are quite a few uses for old devices aside from just pawning them off on your friends or disposing of them. This article is geared primarily at Android devices. Some of you may have older Apple iOS devices (it’s okay if you do, I do too), and I’ll drop hints on how to re-use those devices as well. With that, let’s get started!
  - Researchers’ new app outs iPhone and Android phone energy hogs

Free Software/Open Source

FOSS Around the World: Latin America

Too often coverage of free/open source software news and commentary tends to focus on either developments and activities in North America or in Europe. While much of the news is made on these two continents, there’s a wider world out there where folks are doing some substantial things, and promoting FOSS in their own way in their own areas.
PredictionIO’s Simon Chan on Machine Learning by Devs for Devs

A new open source project, PredictionIO, is building the MySQL of prediction.
Facebook’s TODO project is a big push to evolve the world of open source
Facebook And Partners Establish Group To Promote Open Source Projects
Facebook joins TODO, to improve Open Source Platform
Facebook to evolve open source through ‘TO DO’ collaboration
Internet giants band together to improve open source programs
Facebook’s big TODO to shape future of open source software
Facebook’s TODO project is a big push to evolve open-source software
Open source is top of Facebook ‘TODO’ list
Micro Focus buying Novell, Suse Linux owner for $1.2 billion
Facebook’s TODO Aims To Improve Open Source
Facebook Gives Open Source a Boost Via ‘TODO’ Project
Facebook joins Google & Twitter in open source push
Why you should fork your next open-source project

In my experience, developers turn to forks as a last resort. To fork a project is also to divide its developer base, create disharmony, and potentially eviscerate all that made the project succeed in the first place. It’s not a small matter to break up the family, as it were.

Yet sometimes, that’s exactly what’s required, and platforms like GitHub make forking trivially simple (even if the technology doesn’t take care of all the human factors that complicate a fork).
Try Minetest or Voxelands — open source voxel sandbox games for Fedora
Minetest is an open source Minecraft inspired game

Microsoft is spending $2.5 billion to acquire Mojang, the company behind the game Minecraft. Minecraft is one of the major games played on the Microsoft gaming platform Xbox. No wonder Microsoft is interested. Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. It began with creating barricades to ward off nocturnal monsters but people started developing various imaginative things as the game evolved. Minecraft can be a game of adventures or to relax. You can buy the game for $26.95.
Open source works best with different personality types

In my nearly 20 years of engineering, I have found there are two types of creative people you must have in your groups if you want to be innovative while making awesome things. I call them “the Tool-igans” and the “Product Jocks.” Both are passionate about technology and both love to build, but there are some key differences between them.
A guide to creating easy, online learning materials with Xerte

Xerte Online Toolkits is designed to be installed on a server and used by multiple users. However, for those who just want to try it out, Xerte works very well with XAMPP. XAMPP is prepackaged version of Apache, MySQL, PHP, and several other programs. It makes it possible for a user to run a web server on their own machine so that web-based projects, like Xerte Online Toolkits, can be run locally. XAMPP can even be installed on a USB drive so that you can take your Xerte Online Toolkits installation with you. There is a document with full installation instructions included with the Xerte Online Toolkits download, but the basic instructions are as follows:
3 keys to open source success

Japanese researchers Yuya Yoshikawa, Tomoharu Iwata, Hiroshi Sawada have published a paper titled, “Collaboration on Social Media: Analyzing Successful Projects on Social Coding.” They looked at what factors made projects on “social coding sites” such as GitHub thrive. To do so, they gathered data on activity between February 2011 and May 2013 from the GitHub Archive on non-forked repositories with more than 30 commits. These data covered almost 42 million commits by 1.4 million developers to 317,000 projects.
Is your data boring? MapR wants you to bore it back with Apache Drill

MapR has given its customers a new way to use SQL to query their Big Data stores, with the addition of Apache Drill to MapR’s eponymous Hadoop distribution.
The Internet of Things Needs Open Source

Eclipse IoT now includes 15 projects collectively aiming to reduce the complexity of developing IoT/M2M solutions. Most of the Eclipse literature on this initiative uses that “IoT/M2M” label, because machine-to-machine communication is where it all started, and because it continues to be an essential part of IoT. But is IoT more all encompassing, which, Skerrett says, is what makes developing IoT solutions so challenging.
SaaS/Big Data
- HP acquires open source Eucalyptus
- Soon you will be able to access ownCloud from Chrome OS
  
  The fact is you can already access ownCloud on your Chromebook via the web interface, but it’s not very useful because you can’t really take full advantage of Chrome app to work on your files. You have to manually download each file, work on it using the Chrome apps and then upload then back to your ownCloud server.
- OpenStack’s Mission Is Total Victory
  
  Marten Mickos, the incoming head of HP’s cloud efforts, sets an audacious goal for the open-source cloud.
  When the OpenStack Silicon Valley conference schedule was first announced several months ago, Marten Mickos was best known as the CEO of Eucalyptus, which is a rival effort to OpenStack. Mickos’ position is now set to change thanks to his company’s acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, which was announced Sept. 11.
- OpenStack Ironic Approved for Kilo Integrated Release
  
  While Rackspace has found Ironic safe to use in production, Ironic was not deemed to be ready to be part of the official OpenStack Juno release coming up next month.
- Cisco acquires Metacloud, boosting Intercloud, OpenStack efforts
Databases
- Basho Revamps Riak Open-Source Database
  
  Basho Riak Enterprise 2.0 release steps up NoSQL competition with Cassandra with prebuilt data functions, Apache Solr support, and SSD storage for hot data.
CMS
- Australia picks commercial partner for its open source website plan
  
  GovCMS will use open source software Drupal and will be hosted on a public cloud, which will be provided by Acquia. Drupal was selected after the team assessed 18 other CMS systems.
Education
- Seneca College realizes value of open source
  
  Red Hat has done a lot of work with CDOT, lately specializing in Fedora for ARM processors. Pidora, the Fedora Linux Remix specifically targeted to the Rasberry Pi, was primarily developed at CDOT.
  
  Another company that we have been working with lately is Blindside Networks. They do a lot of work with CDOT on the BigBlueButton project, which is a web conferencing tool for online education.
  
  NexJ is a Toronto-based software development firm that has worked with CDOT on various aspects of open health tools on the server side and integration of medical devices with smart phones.
  
  We have recently started working on the edX platform, where developers around the globe are working to create a next-generation online learning platform.
Funding
- Docker, the hottest cloud startup in the West, adds $40M
Openness/Sharing
- Open Hardware
  - Open-Source Hardware Circa 1920
    
    Recently the group that I work with on pipe organs was able to add a rather unusual example to our collection: an early, self-contained theater organ, which would have been installed in the orchestra pit. Properly, this is a “pit organ.”
Programming
- Eclipse IDE Starts Firing Up On Wayland’s Weston
  
  The Eclipse integrated development environment has basic Wayland capabilities thanks to some student work this summer via Google’s Summer of Code.

Leftovers

Science
- Taking a Health Hazard Home
  
  A new study of a small group of workers at industrial hog farms in North Carolina has found that they continued to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria over several days, raising new questions for public health officials struggling to contain the spread of such pathogens.
Security
- Security advisories for Wednesday
- Tracking People From their Cell Phones with an SS7 Vulnerability
  
  What’s interesting about this story is not that the cell phone system can track your location worldwide. That makes sense; the system has to know where you are. What’s interesting about this story is that anyone can do it. Cyber-weapons arms manufacturers are selling the capability to governments worldwide, and hackers have demonstrated the capability.
Privacy
- Revealed: identity of Fifi the stunning wartime spy
  
  National Archives reveals identity of Britain’s Second World War special agent ‘Fifi’, the beautiful blonde employed to tempt spies from her own side into giving up their secrets
- More Yahoo vs. The NSA: Government Tried To Deny Standing, Filed Supporting Documents Yahoo Never Got To See
  
  That’s the normal declassification schedule, which at this point would still be nearly 18 years away. Fortunately, Ed Snowden’s leaks have led to an accelerated schedule for many documents related to the NSA’s surveillance programs, as well as fewer judges being sympathetic to FOIA stonewalling and exemption abuse.
  
  We’ve talked several times about how the government makes it nearly impossible to sue it for abusing civil liberties with its classified surveillance programs. It routinely claims that complainants have no standing, ignoring the fact that leaked documents have given us many details on what the NSA does and doesn’t collect. But in Yahoo’s case, it went against its own favorite lawsuit-dismissal ploy.
Civil Rights
- WI Election Officials and Advocates Scrambling After Voter ID Reinstated
  
  Wisconsin election officials and advocates are being forced to make an “extraordinary effort” to adjust to voter ID restrictions that were just reinstated by a federal appellate court. Thousands of absentee ballots have already been sent to voters, and the majority of Department of Motor Vehicle service centers that issue IDs are only open only two days per week.
- Proposed Anti-Terror Law in France Would Erode Civil Liberties
  
  A proposed anti-terrorism law in France has freedom of expression advocates concerned. The bill, as our friends at La Quadrature du Net frame it, “institutes a permanent state of emergency on the Internet,” providing for harsher penalties for incitement or “glorification” of terrorism conducted online. Furthermore, the bill (in Article 9) allows for “the possibility for the administrative authority to require Internet service providers to block access to sites inciting or apologizing for terrorism” without distinguishing criteria or an authority to conduct the blocking.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- The Public Submits a Record Number of Comments on Net Neutrality
  
  Apparently, people care about preserving a free and open Internet. Earlier this month, I reported on how a consortium of technology companies, many of which depend on speedy and dependable access to their websites, launched a very public protest against controversial proposed changes to net neutrality regulations. The tech companies involved are calling themselves Team Internet. They are concerned that broadband service providers are developing business models that create slow lanes and fast lanes on the Internet, and that the FCC will provide its blessing for doing so.
Intellectual Monopolies
- ISDS: The devil in the trade deal
  
  A common provision allowing foreign investors to sue host governments has become a ticking time bomb inside trade agreements like the soon to be signed Trans Pacific Partnership. Some countries are now refusing to agree to the provision and are questioning its legal legitimacy. Jess Hill investigates.
- Copyrights
  - Pirate Bay Swede ‘mistreated’ in jail
    
    The brother of Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde has questioned the conditions of his brother’s Swedish jail, slamming both the institution and the guards.
  - Search Engines Can Diminish Online Piracy, Research Finds
    
    New research from Carnegie Mellon University shows that search engine results directly influence people’s decision to pirate movies, or buy them legally. According to the researchers, their findings show how search engines may play a vital role in the fight against online piracy.

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/09/17/systemd/feed/ 0 Links 16/9/2014: Firefox OS Smartphones in Bangladesh, “Treasure Map” of the Internet http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/treasure-map-of-the-internet/ http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/treasure-map-of-the-internet/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:19:59 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=79388

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

‘Windows 9′ LEAK: Microsoft’s playing catchup with Linux

New videos of a “Windows 9″ variant have emerged, and to this hack’s eyes they look to have brought Windows up to speed with tricks that desktop Linux has been turning for at least half a decade.
Windows vs Linux: Which OS is best for your business?

Choosing an operating system may seem simple but can result in restrictions on what applications you can run, and if not executed properly, can result in slow running services and websites which will not load.
Server
- Docker Raises $40M in Series C Financing to Drive Open Source Adoption
  
  Docker said it has secured $40 million from investors for its open-source platform designed for developers and system administrators to build, ship and run distributed applications. Bill Coughran from Sequoia Capital will represent the venture capital firm on Docker’s board of directors. Here are the details.
- Docker Raises $40M, Plans New Enterprise Tool for 2015
  
  Open-source Docker virtualization container technology gets a big vote of confidence from investors, with Docker Inc. receiving a new round of financing.
Kernel Space
- Graphics Stack
Applications
- truncate: Arbitrarily chopping things off
- gtorrent-ncurses: Not quite ready for prime time
- Proprietary
  - Halcyon Software Announces New Monitoring Solution for Linux on IBM Power Systems
    
    Halcyon Software has announced the immediate availability of a new Linux on Power agent that runs on IBM Power Systems to ensure that the Linux operating system performs correctly. It also gives tighter control of ‘mission-critical’ applications running on Linux through automatic and continuous monitoring and management. Halcyon’s new monitoring technology meets the requirements of organisations deploying Linux on IBM Power Systems to give greater scalability, reducing ‘server sprawl’ and infrastructure costs, particularly for large data centres and managed services providers (MSPs) with cloud-based offerings.
  - Opera Beta 25 arrives, finally adds full bookmark support, debuts Linux build
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - New Steam Update Improves AMD Hardware Encoding Quality for In-Home Streaming
    
    The Beta branch of the Steam distribution platform has been updated by Valve and the devs have explained that a few changes have been made.
  - Another World Now Available For Linux, Plus Cheese’s Thoughts And Some Words From Icculus
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Digia Qt Spinoff Is Called “The Qt Company”
  - The Qt Company Introduces a Unified Website and 20€/$25 Monthly Indie Mobile Package | Qt Blog
  - Qt 5.3.2 & Qt Creator 3.2.1 Released
    
    First up is the release of Qt 5.3.2 that brings various fixes and enhancements to the Qt 5.3platform. Qt 5.3.2 has the Qt Quick Compiler 1.1, introduces a tumbler control with Qt Quick Enterprise Controls 1.2, a Qt Purchasing 1.0.1 module for improving in-app purchasing, etc. Qt 5.3.2 details can be found via this Digia blog post.
  - KDE Telepathy 0.9-beta
  - What’s coming to Green Island: part 1
    
    QtCompositor only support one output so in order to do this I did a little abstraction to enumarate outputs and played with QML to show them in the compositor window.
  - Qt Creator 3.2.1 released
    
    We are happy to announce Qt Creator 3.2.1. This release contains a range of bugfixes, including fixes for:
    
    a freeze when using the current project or the all projects locator filters via keyboard shortcut
    a deployment error in the OS X packages which led to the Clang code model plugin not loading
    a crash when opening the context menu on C++ macro parameters
    For a full list of fixes, please see our change log.
  - KDE Developer Says Community Managers Are a Fraud and a Farce
    
    KDE developer Aaron Seigo is a very outspoken person and he is known for his strong opinions. He recently proposed for public debate a very heated and interesting subject about the role of the community managers for the open source project.
    
    He thinks that the community managers’ role, as they are working today on various projects, is actually a fraud and a farce. It’s unclear what determined him to make this statement, but he knew right from the start that it was going to rile up the community and various community managers.
  - Digia spins off Qt as subsidiary
    
    Digia has spun off a subsidiary called “The Qt Company” to unify Qt’s commercial and open source efforts, and debuted a low-cost plan for mobile developers.
    
    The Linux-oriented Qt cross-platform development framework has had a tumultuous career, having been passed around Scandinavia over the yearsfrom Trolltech to Nokia and then from Nokia to Digia. Yet, Qt keeps rolling along in both commercial and open source community versions, continually adding support for new platforms and technologies, and gaining extensive support from mobile developers.
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - Cheese Is a GNOME App That Lets You Have Fun with the Webcam
    
    Cheese is a Photobooth-inspired GNOME application for taking pictures and videos from a webcam, and its developers have released a new version that brings a ton of improvements.
  - GNOME Control Center 3.14 RC1 Corrects Lots of Potential Crashes
    
    GNOME Control Center, GNOME’s main interface for the configuration of various aspects of your desktop, has been updated to version 3.14 RC1, along with a lot of the packages from the GNOME stack.
  - GNOME Wayland development progressing at a steady pace
    
    Last month at flock, we reported on GNOME and Fedora developer Matthias Clasen’s talk on the replacement for the X display server, Wayland. Now on his blog, Matthias has provided a brief update on the status of Wayland support in GNOME 3.14 (the version of GNOME that will ship with Fedora 21).
Distributions
- New Releases
  - Qubes: The Open Source OS Built for Security
    
    No matter how good the code review process is, or how high the standards for acceptance, applications will always have bugs, says Joanna Rutkowska, founder and CEO of Invisible Things Lab. So will drivers. And filesystems.
    
    “Nobody, not even Google Security Team, can find and patch all those bugs in all the desktop apps we all use,” Rutkowska says in the Q&A interview, below.
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat Announces General Availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11
    
    Red Hat, Inc. RHT, +0.07% the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11, the final minor release of the mature Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 reiterates Red Hat’s commitment to a 10-year product lifecycle for all major Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases and offers a a secure, stable, and reliable platform for critical enterprise applications.
  - RPM 4.12 Brings New Switches, New Rpm2Archive Utility
    
    RPM 4.12 has been released as the latest version of the RPM Package Manager. This most recent upgrade brings a fair amount of additions, bug-fixes, API changes, binding improvements,a new plug-in system, and more.
  - Red Hat steps up its entrepreneurship support with Silicon Valley ‘foxhole’
    
    A newly announced partnership with Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) gives American Underground startups a “foxhole” in Silicon Valley.
  - Red Hat Announces General Availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11
  - Fedora
    - Linux Top 3: Fedora 21 Delayed, SystemRescueCD and Raspian Update
      
      There is saying that used to be commonly attributed to when Debian Linux distributions would be released. That saying is – “it’s done, when it’s done.”
      
      The same is true for Fedora Linux which has had more than its fair share of scheduling delays in recent years for releases. Fedora 21 has now been delayed yet again, pushing the date out by a several weeks from the original schedule.
- Debian Family
  - Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert
    
    The Debian installer could be a lot quicker. When we install more than 2000 packages in Skolelinux / Debian Edu using tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever. A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in bug #613428 about too much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package responsible for unpacking the binary packages. Other parts (like code executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during installation. All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to me. If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try to salvage the half installed system. So the failure sync-ing is supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really relevant while the installer is running.
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Six Clicks: An early look at Ubuntu 14.10
        
        For now, if Ubuntu 14.10′s Unity default page look familiar, well it should. On the surface, Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, has done little with the Unity interface. While experienced Linux users tend not to like it, I still find it to be a great desktop for new users.
      - Canonical Partners with AMD for Ubuntu OpenStack Cloud Server
        
        Canonical, the lead commercial sponsor behind the open-source Ubuntu Linux distribution is ramping up its OpenStack efforts thanks to a new server solution from AMD.
      - Django Vulnerabilities Fixed in Ubuntu OSes
        
        The Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS have been updated in order to fix a few Django vulnerabilities that were identified.
Devices/Embedded
- ProtoCam Camera Module Prototyping Board for Raspberry Pi hits Kickstarter
  
  Build GPIO projects around your Raspberry Pi Camera Module with ProtoCam, a new Kickstarter campaign from the Average Man, Richard Saville…
  
  Blogger and tinkerer, Richard Saville of AverageManVsRaspberryPi.com has just hit Kickstarter with ProtoCam, a prototyping board for the Raspberry Pi designed to offer a whole new way to prototype Camera Module projects.
- Roku has sold over 10 million of its streaming players
  
  Roku just hit a milestone: over 10 million of its streaming players have been sold to this point, stretching from the company’s original set-top box — which debuted in 2008 — through today. It’s a big number, and it establishes Roku as one of the leading players in the living room, at least when it comes to streaming boxes. Game consoles obviously sell many more units than that, but Roku has carved out a nice audience by pricing its products aggressively and constantly expanding the ecosystem of apps that run on those boxes. And the products themselves keep getting better.
- Phones
  - Android
    - Android One phones launch in India
      
      Google launched the first Android One phones in India starting at $103 from Micromax, Karbonn, and Spice, and backed by direct Android updates from Google.

Free Software/Open Source

UPDATED: Facebook, Google and Others Partner to Make Open Source Easier
Minix 3.3 Released With Cortex-A8 ARM Support, NetBSD Userland Compatibility
MINIX 3.3.0 is Available Now
Facebook Launches Ambitious TODO Project to Improve Open Source
Facebook’s TODO project is a big push to evolve the world of open source
Facebook Launches TODO Group to Work on Open-Source Software
Facebook’s TODO Project To Simplify Open-Source Software
Facebook open sources its mcrouter data-caching tool
Facebook And Google Form TODO Open Source Group
Facebook and others form TODO group to take on the challenges of open source collaboration
Facebook feeds open source community with ‘mcrouter’
Facebook’s TODO project is a big push to evolve the world of open source
TODO: Facebook Spearheads Launch of Open-Source Collaboration
Facebook Unveils Plans to Work on Open-Source Software
Facebook releases its mcrouter data-caching tool as open source
Flowhub Kickstarter delivery
Facebook open sources its mcrouter data-caching tool
OpenDaylight executive director spells out where this open source SDN efforts stand

So if I compare it to Linux. Linux is in my computer, in my car, it’s in a million things outside of the server room. In the same way I think a large percentage of OpenDaylight will be used and leveraged that way. You will have a few people who grab the code, compile it themselves and deploy it in their environment, but mostly for a proof of concept (POC). If an end user hears about SDN and thinks it’s great, they might find themselves needing to POC 15 different solutions. Do I need an overlay? Well, you’ve got to look at three or four overlays out there because they all do things differently. And if you want to figure out how to use OpenFlow, well there are different flavors of OpenFlow, so you’re going to pull a couple of different ones.
Wipro to Invest in Open Source Technologies, Methodologies and Services

The rapidly increasing pace of adoption of Open Source software and methodologies led by advancements in analytics, cloud computing and the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) have propelled Open Source into a core strategic technology asset for enterprises across the globe. Wipro has set up an Open Source Practice under its Business Application Services division to address this rising demand. This practice will channelize the earmarked investments towards driving growth and building industry leadership in this area.
Wipro eyes open source to advance in analytics, cloud and Internet of Things
Flockport Rivals Docker with Open Source Container Virtualization

Is there more to container-based open source virtualization than Docker? A startup named Flockport thinks so, and has launched a website for sharing and deploying virtual apps using Linux Containers (LXC), an alternative to Docker.
Open Source Enterprise IT Tools: Tools Of Various Kinds That Will Make Working Productive!

Open Source Enterprise IT Tools are now available to make work more productive in your office, as reported by The Linux Insider.

Below are discussions of some of these Open Source enterprise tools that stand out uniquely from their common counterparts. As reported in The Linux Insider, these new-generation online tools bring convenience to the productivity of works produced.
This Open Source Project Prevents Hackers from Accessing Drones

Over the past few years, we’ve seen more drones being used in more ways than ever before. With uses in the military, real estate, retail and everything in between, there’s no shortage of applications for drones.
Events
- Samsung Electronics to host first open-source conference
  
  South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said Monday it would hold a two-day conference on open-source software to allow developers to share ideas on the new industrial trend.
- Samsung’s first open-source conference kicks off, with Tizen on its mind
  
  The inaugural Samsung Open-Source Conference opens Tuesday morning in Seoul, with keynotes from well-known figures in the open source world and a hackathon focused on Tizen, the company’s in-house mobile operating system.
  
  The event kicks off with a speech from Jono Bacon, the former community manager for Ubuntu, who recently moved to the XPrize Foundation, and also includes talks from Linux kernel developer Tejun Heo and Carsten Heitzler, the principal creator of the Enlightenment desktop environment for Linux.
- Samsung Electronics to Hold Open-source Conference SOSCON
- OpenStack Event Opens at Crucial Time for Open-Source Cloud Options
  
  From its beginning in 2010 as a joint project from NASA and Rackspace, OpenStack has grown to have a global community of nearly 20,000 people worldwide working to create a massively scalable cloud operating system.
- LibrePlanet is coming March 21-22, 2015, call for proposals now open for annual free software conference
  
  The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) at MIT today announced the dates for the LibrePlanet free software conference, which will be held March 21-22, 2015, in Cambridge, MA. The call for sessions is now open, as is the call for exhibitors and volunteers.
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
  - Rust Developers Planning For The Rust 1.0 Language
    
    Rust, the general purpose, safe, and concurrent programming language developed by Mozilla Research, is starting to assemble their vision of Rust 1.0.
  - Expanding Reach in Asia: Telenor Group Brings Firefox OS Smartphones to Bangladesh
    
    “This launch was made possible through the cooperation between Grameenphone, Telenor, Mozilla and Symphony,” says Rolv-Erik Spilling, SVP and Head of Telenor Digital. “For us, it’s important to provide the Bangladeshi market with an easy, affordable and locally relevant mobile internet experience, which the Firefox phone enables.”
SaaS/Big Data
- What HP Gains In Eucalyptus Cloud Deal
  
  HP signs letter of intent to buy Eucalyptus, names CEO Marten Mickos head of its cloud unit. More open-source company acquisitions expected as HP builds out cloud offerings, analyst says.
- HP and Eucalyptus and OpenStack, oh my!
- Eucalyptus Will Bring Added Choice to HP’s OpenStack Cloud Strategy
  
  Late last week, news broke that Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy cloud computing firm Eucalyptus, and HP intends to retain open source veteran Marten Mickos as a cloud computing lead. It’s all part of HP chief Meg Whitman’s pledge to pour $1 billion into HP’s Helion cloud business.
- MapR Adds Support for Drill, Open Source Version of Google’s Dremel
  
  MapR, a Google Capital-backed Hadoop distribution provider, announced its software now supports Apache Drill, an open source stream data processing software framework the company is deeply involved in developing.
- Big Data Specialist MapR Updates Hadoop Distribution with Apache Drill
  
  Open source Big Data vendor MapR expanded the functionality of its Hadoop distribution this week with the announcement of MapR 4.0.1, whose headlining feature is Apache Drill 0.5 integration.
  
  The addition of Drill to MapR’s Hadoop distribution introduces ANSI SQL functionality to the platform, which will make it easier for users familiar with SQL interfaces to work with Hadoop and NoSQL data. The upgrade also expands the range of data sources that MapR supports.
Healthcare
- Vivametrica unveils open source healthcare analytics platform for wearables
  
  Sensor-laden smartphones and wearable devices are set to generate vast amounts of activity and other health-related data in the coming years. Fitness bands such as the popular Fitbit and Nike Fuelband, smartwatches such as Samsung’s Gear series and Apple’s recently announced Watch, and their successors, will deliver step counts, heart rate readings and more.
Business
- Semi-Open Source
  - Zimbra – a goliath in the open source field
    
    The open source community also plays an important role in terms of software patches for any bugs or security flaws that may come up in an application. “For example, when the Heartbleed bug was uncovered, the open source community addressed this problem more aggressively than any other company or group. This enabled Zimbra to issue a fix in less than three hours after it was discovered,” he states.
BSD
- [openbsd] Sendmail Removed from Base
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Join us for a Guix hackathon on Sep. 27-28!
  
  The GNU Guix project is organizing a hackathon on September 27th and 28th, 2014. The hackathon will take place primarily on-line, on the #guix IRC channel on Freenode. We have started collecting a list of hacking ideas. Feel free to stop by and make more suggestions!
Project Releases
- vtiger 6.1.0 Released
  
  After several months of development the latest version of the most popular open source CRM, vtiger CRM is released today.
Openness/Sharing
- 10 ways The Nature of Code is open
  
  I recently came across a fascinating book, The Nature of Code by Daniel Shiffman. It is an introduction to using software tools to better understand the way things interact in nature. Shiffman employs animations and visualizations to create this joyful understanding of simulation and the world around us. From a simple oscilating pendulum, to a group of many interacting particles, to the general patterns of a flock of birds.
- 3 million users and hiring at edX
  
  There is a long list of sites powered by Open edX, a platform hoping to be powerful and extensible enough that education experts can use it not only to run courses, but to try out new ideas for how to educate online.
- Open Source Fix For US Voting System ?
  
  Open source programmers and maverick election officials want to improve the way we vote, register to vote, and count the votes. Wish them luck.
- Open Access/Content
  - Laying The Foundation for Innovation Open Source Access
    
    For innovation to really explode, we may have to rethink traditional ways of protecting proprietary information. Is it time to leverage the latent opportunities hidden in open datasets?
Standards/Consortia
- Matrix wants to smash the walled gardens of messaging
  
  Enter Matrix, a proposed open source standard that wants to make instant messaging, voice, and video chat as interoperable as email and as slick as Slack. Matrix is still new — it launched to the public two weeks ago, and not a single messaging service supports it yet — but it has a grand vision for the open future of messaging.

Leftovers

Science
- Science for a better society and a stronger economy
  
  It must have been quite a sight: an angry mob of scientists confronting the prime minister on a rainy day in Canberra about his government’s treatment of science.
  
  Incensed at budget cuts and poor working conditions, the scientists forced the prime minister to admit that before the minerals run out, Australia must become “the clever country”.
Security
- Tuesday’s security updates
- Is This Free Wi-Fi Safe? Search the Map of Dangerous Networks
  
  Last year, Skycure hacked my iPhone in just a few minutes and I was immediately convinced that network attacks were a problem. Though this was an extreme example, we’ve long been warning our readers about the dangers of public Wi-Fi networks and the prevalence of attacks that can silently sip your personal data without your knowledge. But yesterday, Skycure’s CEO and co-founder Adi Sharabani showed me a new tool that makes those invisible attacks a little easier to see.
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- FEIN: Why the Constitution disfavors war
  
  The U.S. Constitution sharply disfavors war. It does so by entrusting exclusive authority for initiating war in Congress, the branch of government whose powers are diminished by military conflict.
- ISIS: Former NSA Head Michael Hayden Claims Syria Airstrikes Are Like ‘Casual Sex’
  
  Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden made headlines after he compared President Obama’s plan to implement air strikes against ISIS militants in Syria to “casual sex” in an interview with U.S. News & World Report on Thursday.
- The PBS Left: ‘Airstrikes Are Wonderful’
  
  So the left view of Obama’s war plan is that airstrikes “are wonderful,” but that in order to really win there needs to be a ground invasion? Or is Shields’ point that a ground invasion is necessary and therefore untenable? It’s hard to tell. During an earlier discussion (NewsHour, 8/8/14), when he was asked if Obama had “a choice but to go back in militarily,” Shields replied, “I don’t think he did.”
  
  If Shields–and PBS, for that matter–believe in having a full debate about this war, they will need to find a more forceful critic of Obama’s latest war.
- Confessions of a drone veteran: Why using them is more dangerous than the government is telling you
  
  The White House sells drones strikes as legal, ethical and targeted to protect our military and innocent civilians from harm. These are questionable claims, made more dubious by the administration’s selectively leaking details of the drone program to assuage the public when reports arise of flawed legal reasoning, mistaken strikes or vastly underestimated civilian deaths.
  
  CIA director John O. Brennan also told the American public that drones “can be a wise choice because they dramatically reduce the danger to U.S. personnel, even eliminating the danger altogether.” Director Brennan is wrong.
  
  I know because I am a veteran of the drone program. I served as an Air Force imagery analyst. What I know of drone warfare is that it has dangerous, sometimes devastating, consequences for too many service members participating in the program.
Transparency Reporting
- Julian Assange on Snowden, disliking Google, and his “inevitable” freedom
  
  It would be too much to say that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange feels optimistic. He’s been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than two years now, with cameras and police—”a £3 million surveillance operation,” he calls it—just meters away.
Censorship
- Censorship Is Not The Answer to Online Piracy
  
  The Australian Government has proposed a wide variety of measures to deal with online piracy, including website blocking. The local Pirate Party believes that censorship is not the answer, however, and signals a range of problems with the Government’s plans.
Privacy
Civil Rights
- Witnesses say Utah man killed by police was running away, attorney says
  
  Officials said Hunt had “lunged” at officers with the sword before they shot him. But the attorney for Hunt’s family, Randall K. Edwards, said the autopsy results found that “none of these shots were from Darrien’s front.”
- CIA’s John Brennan Refuses To Tell Senate Who Okayed Spying On The Senate
  
  As you may recall, over the past few months, there’s been a rather big story brewing, concerning how the CIA spied on Senate staffers. Specifically, after having explicitly promised not to do so, the CIA snooped on a private network of Senate staffers who were putting together the giant $40 million report on the CIA’s torture program. The CIA tried to spin the story, claiming that they only spied on that network after realizing that those staffers had a document that the CIA thought it had not handed over to the staffers (they had), believing that perhaps there had been a security breach. However, when read carefully, the CIA’s spin actually confirmed the original story: the CIA, against basically all of its mandates and the basic concept of the Constitutional separation of powers, had spied on the Senate. While both the Senate and the CIA asked the DOJ to investigate, eventually the DOJ said the matter was closed and there would be no prosecutions.
- The billionaire, the NSA and the no-fly list: America’s ‘state secret’ obsession has gone too far
  
  In lawsuits challenging NSA mass surveillance, torture and drone strikes on Americans in recent years, the US government has turned what was once a narrow legal privilege into an immunity trump card – a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for “matters of national security”. And now, despite publicly promising to restrict its use, attorney general Eric Holder is trying to expand the power even further.
  
  In Monday’s New York Times, Matt Apuzzo wrote about a fascinating – if bizarre and publicly mysterious – court case between two private parties in which the US justice department has invoked the so-called state secrets privilege. A Greek shipping magnate has accused an advocacy group pushing for sanctions on Iran of lying about him, but the government argues that the case must be dismissed with hardly an explanation, citing only a “concerned federal agency”.
- 13 Principles Week of Action: Secret Law is Not Law
- Secret Law is Not Law
  
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cindy Cohn is on fire: “Let’s be clear: Under international human rights law, secret “law” doesn’t even qualify as ‘law’ at all.”
  
  The US Government and agencies like the DEA, NSA, TSA and FBI conduct mass-scale domestic surveillance on the basis of laws whose interpretations are held to be state secrets and matters of national security. From No-Fly lists to the FISA court, the US has adopted the principle that you are not allowed to know the law, but if you break it, you will be punished under it.
- Cloud data makes life easier for government spooks – and the law gives them a free pass
  
  With the growth of internet-based cloud services, storage, social media and mobile devices, our activities increasingly leave digital shadows in our wake – social media activity, website visits, mobile phone records – that are hard to escape from.
  
  There have never been so many opportunities for governments around the world to snoop on citizens as there are today. Yahoo recently released a cache of documents revealing how in 2007 it refused a demand from the US National Security Agency for a bulk release of email metadata. Yahoo fought the demand in the courts, but caved in the following year after it was threatened with fines of US$250,000 a day for refusing to comply.
- An Unbearable And Choking Hell: The Loss Of Our Freedom In The Wake Of 9/11
  
  What a strange and harrowing road we’ve walked since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties. We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade a freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state.
  
  What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse. Since then, we have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance. The bogeyman’s names and faces change over time—Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and now ISIS—but the end result remains the same: our unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security.
- The Pentagon Sent Extra Military Gear to School Districts Too
  
  The same Pentagon program that provides surplus military equipment to local police departments has also provided heavy armor and weapons to school districts, and a group of civil rights groups are calling for an end to it.
- Boy, 17, in critical condition after he ‘stopped breathing for FIVE MINUTES’ when he was Tasered by cop during traffic stop
  
  A 17-year-old boy is in a critical condition after being Tasered by a police officer during a traffic stop.
  
  The FBI is investigating after a police officer used a stun gun to subdue Bryce Masters in suburban Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday afternoon after stopping a car he was driving because it had a warrant attached to it.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Net Neutrality Advocates Make Last FCC Push as Comment Window Closes
  
  The Commission’s proposed rule for “fast lanes” on the Internet that would cost extra has generated millions of comments since July
- In The FCC’s Own Words: Chairman Wheeler Has Proposed Online Discrimination, Paid Prioritization, And Exclusive Deals
  
  Last week, we showed how the Verizon court decision made it clear that without Title II reclassification, the internet would be open to discrimination, paid prioritization and exclusive deals. This week, we’re looking at how FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s claims back that up, despite his attempts to argue otherwise.
- Net neutrality comments pass 3 million
  
  Comments from the public continued to flood the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, up until the midnight deadline for input on proposed new regulations on Internet service providers.
Intellectual Monopolies
- The TTIP deal hands British sovereignty to multinationals
  
  “It’s a serious threat to British democracy from Brussels.” “Faceless EU bureaucrats threaten to impose laws without the consent of the British people.” Both these statements could succinctly, and accurately, describe the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership – TTIP – between the European Union and the United States. But David Cameron is not scuttling to Brussels to display his bulldog spirit as he vetoes an attack on our country’s sovereignty. Nor will you catch Ukip issuing chilling warnings about EU rule. On the contrary, the Ukip MEP Roger Helmer says: “We have no alternative but to support the deal.”
  
  And don’t expect any front-page splashes from the Daily Mail – keen as it is to berate the EU over everything from regulations on the shape of bananas to imperial measurements – about the TTIP threat. In fact, there has been all too little media scrutiny of this menace, with the notable exception of my crusading colleague George Monbiot.
- Copyrights

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/treasure-map-of-the-internet/feed/ 0 Links 16/9/2014: Linux 3.17 RC5, KDE Frameworks 5.2.0 http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/links-1692014-linux-3-17-rc5-kde-frameworks-5-2-0/ http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/links-1692014-linux-3-17-rc5-kde-frameworks-5-2-0/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:45:26 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=79365

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Hello World: Videos That Teach Linux To Kids

Recently, they launched a new series, “Superusers: The Legendary GNU/Linux Show,” which stars Aramis, a gnu who bares a strange resemblance to Richard Stallman, and a penguin named Adelie. The pilot episode for this series, called “Help,” deals with the Linux command by the same name and features some clever wordplay, utilizing lyrics from the old Beatles song. This would be in keeping with the brothers’ idea of making sure their videos appeal to kids and adults alike.
Desktop
- How to lobby for open source and Linux in schools
  
  About eight years ago, I started lobbying to bring more Linux and open source software to high schools and higher IT vocational institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium. Here’s how I did it and what you can learn from it to do the same where you live.
- Ho Hum “9” Inaction
  
  Real innovation happens in FLOSS and GNU/Linux where the pace of innovation sometimes is annoyingly fast. In the last few years, FLOSS has brought us the cloud in real measure, better and faster IT generally, Android/Linux and “apps”, more distros and rearrangements of the desktop than you could ever think of shipping, and most amazing of all, growth of >100% in users at a price of $0 to end-users.
- Linus On GNU/Linux And Computers In Education
  
  It is good to know that his local school used GNU/Linux and OpenOffice before they moved to that community and that his children have no real problem using GNU/Linux at school. That squares with my experience over much of northern Canada. GNU/Linux just works really well for students and teachers. It’s fast, efficient and reliable so folks can get on with teaching/learning and not fighting software. The key thing is that GNU/Linux is affordable and schools can have about twice as much IT for the same cost as with that other OS.
- Linux Tech Support & Time Warner
  
  I’ve spent my time in the tech support trenches…and someone else’s time as well. Please mark my dues paid in full. I’ve worked from the script-reader doing basic trouble-shooting, up to floor supervisor and level three support. My point? Not everybody who works support at a call center is an idiot, but some certainly are…
- Greens urge Saxony to consider open source use
  
  The Alliance 90 / The Greens in the parliament of the German state of Saxony are urging for a feasibility study on moving the state’s public administrations to free and open source software solutions. The political group, free software users themselves since December 2011, say that lower IT costs and advantages in IT security should drive public administrations to using free and open source software.
Server
- Speed or torque? Linux desktop vs. server distros
  
  My post about splitting up Linux distributions along dedicated server and desktop lines has produced interesting feedback. The comments — both in public and privately via email — are all over the place.
Kernel Space
- Linux 3.17-rc5 Kernel Released
- Linux 3.17-rc5
  
  So I should probably have delayed this until Wednesday for sentimental
  reasons: that will be 23 years since I uploaded the 0.01 source tree.
  But I’m not an overly sentimental person, so screw that. I’m doing my
  normal Sunday release.
  
  And as I mentioned in the rc4 notes, the previous rc was pretty small,
  possibly because neither Greg nor Davem had sent in any updates that
  week. Guess what? David’s networking updates came in an hour after I
  did rc4, and sure enough Greg came in this week too, so – surprise
  surprise – rc5 isn’t as small as rc4 was.
  
  Oh well. It was too good to last.
  
  I also got a report of an *old* performance regression in the dentry
  cache (since 3.10 – positively ancient), and that in turn made me look
  around some more, and there were a few other special cases that could
  cause us to not do as well as we should. I fixed some of it, and Al
  fixed the rest. So hopefully we not only fixed the reported
  regression, but are actually doing better than we used to.
  
  Anyway, the size of rc5 means that I’m certainly not cutting the
  release early, which means that I will have to think about exactly
  what I will do about the next merge window. Because it looks like it
  might end up conflicting with my travel around LinuxCon EU. I haven’t
  quite decided what I’ll do – I might release 3.17 normally, but then
  just not open the merge window due to travel. Or, if there are more
  issues than I think there will be, maybe I’ll delay the 3.17 release.
  
  We’ll see.
  
  Regardless – the rc5 changes is about half drivers (networking, gpu,
  usb, input, ata..) with the rest being mostly a mix of filesystem
  updates (the aforementioned performance thing in the core vfs layer,
  but also some NFS export issues found by Al and misc other stuff),
  architecture updates (arm, parisc, s390) and core networking. And a
  smattering of other. Shortlog appended.
  
  In other words, things look fairly normal, even if I’d have been
  happier with rc5 being smaller. But with the bump from networking and
  drivers, I’m not going to claim that this was either unexpected or
  particularly scary. I’m hoping we’re done now, and that rc6 and rc7
  will be noticeably calmer.
  
  Knock wood.
  
  Linus
- Torvalds says he has no strong opinions on systemd
  
  Linux creator Linus Torvalds is well-known for his strong opinions on many technical things. But when it comes to systemd, the init system that has caused a fair degree of angst in the Linux world, Torvalds is neutral.
- Linus’ Systemd Indifference, PCLOS Review, and Rebecca
  
  Today in Linux news Linus Torvalds tells Sam Varghese that he’s Switzerland in the Systemd war as Paul Venezia is back to clarify his “split Linux in two” post and Linuxgrrl takes the community pulse. Jesse Smith reviews PCLinuxOS 2014.08. Clem has announced a change in naming protocol at the Mint project for upcoming 17.1. And finally today, Jim Zemlin talks about what it takes to be a successful Open Source project.
- Is It Time to Cleave Linux in Two?
  
  The latest flareup? None other than the suggestion that Linux be split in two.
- Graphics Stack
  - VESA Releases DisplayPort 1.3, Pushes 32.4 Gbits/sec
    
    The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) this morning officially unveiled the DisplayPort 1.3 specification that takes DP 1.2a even further.
  - MSAA RadeonSI Gallium3D Performance Preview
  - Nouveau For Linux 3.18 Gains DP Audio, More Re-Clocking
    
    Ben Skeggs sent in his Nouveau DRM driver changes for the drm-next tree of open-source NVIDIA driver improvements that will land in Linux 3.18.
Applications
- Vesta Control Panel – An Open Source, Free Web Hosting Control Panel For Linux
  
  Vesta Control panel is an open source, free, easy to install and configure web based control panel for Linux like systems. Using VestaCP anyone, even a novice system administrators can able to manage websites in VPS.
- Inspect, Edit, and Create MKV Video Files with MKVToolNix 7.2.0
  
  MKVToolNix is a complete set of tools to create, alter, and inspect Matroska files under Linux and other platforms. This application has been updated and the developers have made a number of important changes and improvements.
- QEMU 2.1.1 Open Source Virtualization Software Now Available for Download
  
  QEMU 2.1.1, a generic open source emulator and virtualizer that can run OSes and programs made for a different machine, has been released and it’s available for download.
- ttysolitaire: Your reward for sticking around so long
- Proprietary
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
Desktop Environments/WMs
- Enlightenment E19 Officially Released With Its Own Wayland Compositor
  
  sWhile E19 didn’t come out last week as talked about, it was released this morning! The Enlightenment E19 update is a huge upgrade over E18 or E17, especially if you’re an early Wayland adopter.
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Snippets in Kate 5
    
    Recently I spent some time to port and clean up the Snippets plugin and the underlying template interface for Kate 5. It’s now fully working again and more powerful than ever. The template code was originally written by Joseph Wenniger and most of what I show here is still working like originally implemented by him. Still, there were some improvements I would like to show; also, I’m sure many readers might not be aware of this great feature at all.
  - KDE Frameworks 5.2.0 Officialy Released
  - Running KDE Plasma 5 on Kubuntu 14.04, Kubuntu 14.10 and Linux Mint 17 KDE
    
    KDE Plasma 5 is a completely new desktop experience for KDE users. built using Qt 5 and Frameworks 5 and it introduces an updated artwork concept with cleaner visuals and improved readability, called Breeze, along with improved high DPI support and a converged shell, as well as a fully hardware accelerated graphics stack.
- Distributions
  - New Releases
    - Black Lab Linux 6.0 Beta 1 Is Now Based on a Heavily Modified GNOME 3 Desktop – Gallery
      
      Black Lab Linux 6.0 Beta 1, a distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, is out and users can now download and test it.
      
      Black Lab Linux was initially released to provide a real alternative to Windows and Mac OS X systems, but as time passed, the developer switched this approach to one focused more on open source design. Gone are the days of dreary desktops with all-too-known designs. We are now entering the GNOME world and it looks like it’s hit the spot.
    - 4MLinux Multiboot Edition 10.0 Beta Lets Users Install Latest Ubuntu and Fedora over Network
      
      4MLinux Multiboot Edition 10.0 Beta, a mini Linux distribution that is focused on the 4Ms of computing, Maintenance (system rescue Live CD), Multimedia (e.g., playing video DVDs), Miniserver (using the inetd daemon), and Mystery (Linux games), has been released and is now ready for testing.
  - Red Hat Family
    - Second Xfce 4.10 “plugins” COPR repo for Enterprise Linux 7
      
      I have setup a COPR repository for Xfce 4.10 plugins that can be installed with EL-7. The original Xfce 4.10 repo for EL – 7 (xfce410_epel7) contains the core xfce packages. The new repo contains only plugins. I made a second repo just for organizational sake.
    - Fedora
      - Better font support in LibreOffice on Fedora
        
        Fedora and LibreOffice developer Caolán McNamara recently blogged about some fonts (specifically some fonts for OSX) not showing up in the font chooser in LibreOffice on Linux. It turns out is was an issue with the way some fonts encode their names, and LibreOffice was not showing these thinking it was an error. Bottom line is that the issue is fixed, and the fix will be seen in Fedora in the future, resulting in better font support in LibreOffice — which is always a good thing!
  - Debian Family
    - LLVM Clang Now Builds Even More Debian Packages
      
      Going back two years has been an initiative to build the Debian package base with LLVM/Clang rather than GCC — for much the same reasons as building the Linux kernel with Clang. Thanks to Google’s Summer of Code, there’s been more progress on building out Debian using the latest Clang compiler.
    - Rebuild of Debian using Clang 3.5.0
      
      As a parallel approach, we started to implement a suggestion from Linus Torvalds and a few others. Instead of trying to fix all upstream, where we can, we tried to update clang to improve the gcc compatibility.
    - OpenMediaVault 1.0 Released As New Linux NAS Alternative
      
      OpenMediaVault 1.0 was released today as a Debian-based network attached storage (NAS) solution that uses Nginx, its own dashboard with widgets support, and other original features.
    - OpenMediaVault 1.0, a Complete Free NAS Solution You Didn’t Know You Needed
    - Derivatives
      - Canonical/Ubuntu
        
        Meizu confirms new MX4 with Ubuntu Touch for this year
        
        Curl Exploits Closed in All Supported Ubuntu OSes
        
        Canonical has announced that a couple of curl vulnerabilities have been found and fixed in its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating systems.
        
        Meizu Ubuntu Touch device coming this winter
        
        Canonical’s Ubuntu Touch operating system will debut its official launch on the octa-core Meizu MX4 in December but there is still no word on a device from the other launch partnet, Bq, yet.
        
        In a blog post, Meizu announced that there MX4 will launch in December with Android 4.4.4 and Ubuntu Touch. The device is very poweful sporting a MT6595 octa-core processor, a 5.4″ display and a 20.7MP camera.
        
        Everything You Need to Know About Meizu MX4, the Upcoming Ubuntu Phone – Gallery
        
        The new Ubuntu Touch operating system from Canonical will power the new Meizu MX4 phone and it will be out in December, according to the latest information posted by the Chinese company. We now take a closer look at this new phone to see how it will hold up with an Ubuntu experience.
        
        Flavours and Variants
        
        Linux Mint 17.1 to Be Called “Rebecca”
        
        The Linux Mint developers have decided to announce the name of the next version of their distro, 17.1, and it’s going to be “Rebecca.”
        
        The Linux Mint code names were never something very important, not for the developer and not for the community. It’s hard to pinpoint the names of the previous releases, but that’s not really an issue. The distribution is known for many other good things and the name is not really an important feature.
        
        Linux Mint 17.1 Is Codenamed Rebecca
        
        Linux Mint 17.1 gets yet another female codename — is it sexist or endearing?
        
        About Linux Weekly News – 15th September 2014
        
        Jeff Hoogland, the founder and lead contributor to the Bodhi Linux project has announced that he is moving on to pastures new after four years at the helm.
- Devices/Embedded
  - Intel’s Edison Brings Yocto Linux to Wearables
    
    Linux-based platforms for wearables include Android Wear, Samsung’s Tizen SDK for Wearables, and now Intel’s Yocto Linux and Intel Atom-based Edison computing module. The Edison was released last week in conjunction with the Intel Developer Forum. Prior to the formal launch, some 70 Intel Edison beta units have been seeded, forming the basis for about 40 Edison-based projects, says Intel.
  - Phones
    - Android
      - Google reveals the first ultra-cheap Android One smartphones
        
        Google has unveiled the first smartphones to run on its Android One platform, a standard designed to help push affordable smartphones in the developing world. The initiative kicks off in India, where Micromax, Spice, and Karbonn are all selling phones with 4.5-inch screens, 1GB of RAM, 5-megapixel main and 2-megapixel front cameras, 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processors, dual-SIM slots, microSD expandable storage, and FM radios.
      - With Android One, Google puts itself firmly back in the OS’ driving seat
        
        Under Android One, Google has developed its reference hardware designs — meaning OEMs no longer have to develop and test their own smartphones; they just pick up Google’s ready-to-wear versions and get manufacturing. Google already has three local Indian smartphone makers signed up to do just that — Karbonn, Spice, and Micromax — all soon be be selling Google-designed, Android One-powered devices for around $100.

Free Software/Open Source

The True Measure of a Successful Open Source Project

A question I get a lot is, “What makes an open source software project successful?” This isn’t a simple question, as every project is really different. But certainly there are some common characteristics: a vibrant and open community and ecosystem of contributors, an innovative goal or technology and investments from a diverse set of stakeholders are just a few.

Business benchmarks and market share help measure the success of a project over time. A blockbuster like Linux can tout nine code changes per hour, $10.8 billion in shared R&D investment and millions of developers. It runs 65 percent of smart mobile devices, 95 percent of high performance computing market, 55 percent of the embedded systems market, and most of world’s stock exchanges.
Open source all the tasks

During the rise of Windows, I was using a desktop composed of a Conectiva Linux (now Mandriva), a window manager called Window Maker, and a Netscape browser. I connected to the Internet using my modem and PPP. Not bad for those who like alternatives. It so happens that at that time the maturity of the software we were using freely and openly was questionable. Furthermore, we didn’t have a lot of options when it came to the tools we used to perform our daily tasks.

Recently, I was invited to talk at the Firebird Developers Day about Firebird. Firebird is a completely mature open source database management system and is used by companies worldwide. My presentation was about the launch of the FireServer Project, previously covered on Opensource.com: Migration to open source tool inspires new Linux distributiont. It’s a Linux distribution based on CentOS and dedicated exclusively to providing a high performance environment to a Firebird database server. It also boasts an ecosystem of value-added services.
An Alliance of Major Players to Guide Open-Source Software

Representatives of Facebook on Monday announced the formation of a group, the TODO Project, intended to streamline the way open-source software projects, a big part of cloud and mobile computing, are executed. This may include such things as best practices for updating open-source software, ways of securing legal compliance, or tools and habits for making software that is freely available to anyone.

Open source is a popular approach to software, in which anyone can contribute to and use the code. Formal approval of changes comes from agreed-upon authorities who speak for the group. It is considered a good way to build software with fewer bugs, and such software makes up much of the world’s mobile and computer server operating systems, as well as many other applications.
Open-source project promises easy-to-use encryption for email, instant messaging and more

Called “Pretty Easy Privacy” (PEP), the project’s goal is to integrate the technology with existing communication tools on different desktop and mobile platforms. The development team launched a preview PEP implementation Monday for the Microsoft Outlook email client, but plans to build similar products to encrypt communications in Android, iOS, Firefox OS, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Jabber, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and Twitter.
Events
- Learn more about free and open source software at Software Freedom Day 2014
  
  The days of free and open source software being something that only pasty white guys living in their moms’ basements cared about are long gone. Today, the FOSS movement is absolutely huge, with even big companies buying into the concept thanks to the cost savings and beneficial functionality offered by increasingly competitive and polished FOSS options.
- Samsung to host first open-source conference
  
  South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it will hold a two-day conference on open-source to allow developers to share ideas on the new industrial trend.
- Samsung Open Source Group’s Linux Kernel Updates and More from LinuxCon
  
  This year’s LinuxCon & Kernel Summit North America were notable for several reasons, not the least of which included being able to see the scenic views of downtown Chicago through the hotel lobby windows!
  
  Below, the Samsung Open Source Group will share our top highlights of the conferences, as well as look forward to what we can expect from LinuxCon Europe next month in Germany.
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
  - Mozilla Looking to Go Cross Platform for Development
SaaS/Big Data
- Open source datacenter computing with Apache Mesos
  
  Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that provides efficient resource isolation and sharing across distributed applications or frameworks. Mesos is a open source software originally developed at the University of California at Berkeley. It sits between the application layer and the operating system and makes it easier to deploy and manage applications in large-scale clustered environments more efficiently. It can run many applications on a dynamically shared pool of nodes. Prominent users of Mesos include Twitter, Airbnb, MediaCrossing, Xogito and Categorize.
- No, Citrix did not kill CloudStack
  
  CloudStack’s lifeblood is its user community, so the Citrix shakeup is much ado about nothing
- Despite Controversy, CloudStack is Alive and Healthy
  
  In a post last week, I took note of a big shakeup at Citrix, surrounding its cloud platform tools and the leadership behind them. Specifically, some important Citrix cloud executives (including General Manager Sameer Dholakia) left the company, and Citrix veteran Klaus Oestermann is now in charge of a newly formed cloud group. The the success of OpenStack has been cited as part of the reason for the shakeup, as Citrix officials have been questioned about touting CloudStack as far and away the most widely deployed open source platform in the cloud.
- Google’s Cloud Platform for Startups Offers Free Tools and Funds
  
  When the OpenStack Foundation released the results of a broad user survey it did late last year, one of the trends that emerged was that businesses could leverage the open source cloud platform on top of operating systems like Ubuntu and incur nearly no costs for the actual software infrastructure that runs applications. Cloud computing is reducing the cost of doing business for many organizations, especially many startups.
  
  With that last thought in mind, Google is delivering a package to help startup businesses launch their business with free Google Cloud Platform services. Qualifying startups are to get a $100,000 credit for Google Cloud Platform services, in addition to 24/7 support from the company’s technical solutions team.
- New features for OpenStack networking, web dashboard improvements, and more
- HP-Eucalyptus: Buying an edge in a busy, complex market
  
  HP’s move to acquire Eucalpytus (see HP buys Eucalyptus, puts Marten Mickos in charge of cloud unit by my colleague Larry Dignan) is the latest example of asupplier trying to be a part of every industry party.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- Austrian gov computing centre lauds OpenOffice
  
  Austria’s Bundesrechenzentrum, the federal government-owned computing centre praises the wide range of application uses of Apache OpenOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools. The solution can be adapted to the data centre’s needs, integrated in its specialist applications and also allows document to be created and submitted automatically and semi-automatically. OpenOffice is the standard office suite at the computing centre since 2008, installed on 12000 PCs across the organisation.
CMS
- Acquia to deliver government’s cloud-hosted, open source CMS
  
  Boston-headquartered Drupal services company Acquia will deliver the federal government’s govCMS project.
  
  The project to create a standard content management system for federal government agencies was announced in May.
- WordPress Resets 100,000 Passwords After Google Account Leak
  
  Late evening on Sept. 12, WordPress revealed that it was taking proactive measures to secure its WordPress.com users against the Google account disclosure. WordPress has an open-source content management system (CMS) as well an online service at WordPress.com, where users can create their own blogs. WordPress.com accounts can also be used by self-hosted open-source WordPress users to get a number of services from WordPress.com.
- How Matt’s Machine Works
  
  And that is how Mullenweg, creator of WordPress, founder of Automattic, and chairman of The WordPress Foundation, runs 22% of the Internet.
BSD
- FreeBSD 10.1-BETA1 Now Available
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- ToDo for GNUstep
- IPA Font license added to license list
  
  We recently updated our list of various licenses and comments about them to include the IPA Font license. It is a copyleft free software license for fonts, incompatible with the GPL.
Openness/Sharing
- Open Data
  - 5 great apps backed with open data
    
    Data.gov has taken open source to heart. Beyond just providing open data and open source code, the entire process involves open civic engagement. All team ideas, public interactions, and new ideas (from any interaction) are cross-posted and entered in Github. These are tracked openly and completed to milestones for full transparency. We also recently redesigned the website at Data.gov through usability testing and open engagement on Github.
Programming
- Pyston 0.2 Is A Heck Of A Lot Better At Running Python Programs
  
  Earlier this year cloud storage provider Dropbox open-sourced their own high-performance Python implementation, Pyston. Pyston is a JIT-based Python implementation built atop the LLVM compiler stack. The initial Pyston release was a bit basic but now after months of work, Dropbox is announcing the second version of Pyston.
- CppCon Wrapped Up & There Was A Lot For C++ Developers
  
  CppCon ended last week as the annual meeting for any and all C++ developers. CppCon is filled with many interesting talks and the conference overall received rave reviews from C++ developers. While we weren’t in attendance at the event, there’s interesting notes and slides coming out from those in attendance.
- Git: A Tool for Learning Puppet
  
  If you have worked through this tutorial series so far, you’ll recall that we’re teaching your cat how to use just enough of the open source tools needed to make it through Puppet Fundamentals. We installed the Learning VM (virtual machine) in our intro, learned some important command line commands, and learned how to edit a document in vim. This blog post — the final one in our series — is about how to use Git. Once you finish this tutorial, you’ll have all the basic learning you need to start learning Puppet on your own, or by taking one of our training courses. (You’ll find all these resources in the Learning section of our site.)
Standards/Consortia
- OpenForum Europe Challenges Governments to Walk the Open Format Walk
  
  OpenForum Europe, an advocacy group focusing on IT openness in government, issued a press release earlier today announcing its launch of a new public Internet portal. At that site, anyone can report a government page that offers a document intended for collaborative use for downloading if that document is not available in an OpenDocument Format (ODF) compliant version. The portal is called FixMyDocuments.eu, and you can show your support for the initiative (as I have) by adding your name here (the first supporter listed is the EU’s indominatable digital champion, Neelie Kroes).
  
  The announcement coincides with the beginning of another initiative, Global Legislative Openness Week, which will involve global activities annd “events hosted by the Legislative Openness Working Group of the Open Government Partnership and members of the parliamentary openness community.” A full calendar of events is here.

Leftovers

Huawei opens R&D facility in France

Chinese networking giant’s new research site in the Sophia Antipolis technology hub is its 17th in Europe and will focus on chipset design and embedded technology.
OECD unveils public sector innovation portal

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in June unveiled a new portal for innovation in the public sector, the ‘Observatory of Public Sector Innovation’. The observatory is to collect, share and analyse examples of public sector innovation and to provide practical advice to countries on how to make innovations work. The portal will be demonstrated at the OECD ‘Conference on Innovating the Public Sector: From Ideas to Impact’, which takes place in Paris, France, on 12 and 13 November.
Security
- Security advisories for Monday
- Freenode IRC users told to change passwords after securo-breach
  
  Freenode’s IRC server was compromised and passwords were likely sniffed by unidentified hackers, prompting a warning to users that they should reset their passwords as a precaution.
- How network virtualization is used as a security tool
  
  When people think of network virtualization, the advantages that come to mind typically include faster provisioning of networks, easier management of networks and more efficient use of resources. But network virtualization can have another major benefit as well: security.
- Infosec geniuses hack a Canon PRINTER and install DOOM
  
  Security researchers have demonstrated a hack that allowed them to get into the web interface of a Canon Pixma printer before modifying its firmware to run the classic 90s computer game Doom.
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- CBS: ‘We Have No Choice’ but to Attack ISIS ‘Before We All Get Killed’
  
  If there’s one thing that animates the discussion of Obama’s war plan against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), it is the idea that the group could attack the United States. There is no evidence of such danger right now–a point that is certainly covered by the press (e.g., Washington Post, 9/13/14)–but the array of voices in the media saying otherwise can seem to overwhelm any reasonable discussions.
- ABC: ISIS Possibly Scarier Than Al-Qaeda–Due to Social Media
Transparency Reporting
- WikiLeaks names NSW Police as FinFisher malware customer
  
  The NSW Police and Singapore’s PCS Security Pte Ltd have been named as buyers of FinFischer malware, along with the intelligence arms of the Hungarian, Italian, and Bosnian governments.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- US Chamber Attack on Wife of Walker Prosecutor Falls Apart
  
  The investigation into Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is led by a Republican special prosecutor, was unanimously approved by Wisconsin’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, and includes the participation of elected county District Attorneys from both political parties.
- Four Examples Of Fox News Serving As Scott Brown’s Campaign Megaphone
  
  When Scott Brown has a campaign proposal he needs to roll out, the Republican Senate candidate has a reliable partner in Fox News, which has produced numerous segments tailored around his campaign’s initiatives.
Privacy
- DEATH TO TCP/IP cry Cisco, Intel, US gov and boffins galore
  
  The US National Science Foundation, Cisco, Verisign, Panasonic and boffins from around the world have thrown their weight behind a new “Named Data Networking Consortium” that aims to develop “a practically deployable set of protocols replacing TCP/IP that increases network trustworthiness and security, addresses the growing bandwidth requirements of modern content, and simplifies the creation of sophisticated distributed applications.”
- Comcast Allegedly Asking Customers to Stop Using Tor
- Comcast Declares War on Tor?
  
  If you needed another reason to hate Comcast, the most hated company in America, they’ve just given it to you: they’ve declared war on Tor Browser.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- The Court’s Own Words: Life Without Title II Has Online Discrimination, Paid Prioritization, Exclusive Deals, And Maybe Blocking
  
  To hear Tom Wheeler and most of the big broadband players explain the net neutrality situation, the appeals court decision back in February laid out a “roadmap” for the FCC to continue to use Section 706 for its open internet rules. But that’s not actually true. It’s a clear misrepresentation of what the court actually said.

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/09/16/links-1692014-linux-3-17-rc5-kde-frameworks-5-2-0/feed/ 0 Links 14/9/2014: Eucalyptus Devoured http://techrights.org/2014/09/14/eucalyptus-devoured/ http://techrights.org/2014/09/14/eucalyptus-devoured/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2014 07:57:38 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=79345

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Stephen Hawking tries Linux powered Wheelchair made by Intel

Stephen Hawking, one of the smartest brains on the planet, gave Intel’s Linux powered wheelchair a try and talked about it. The company showcased their ‘Connected Wheelchair’ at the ongoing Intel Developer Conference (IDF).
CompuLab’s Intense-PC2 Is A Great Haswell-Based Mini Linux PC

Compared to most Linux PC vendors targeting consumers that are just selling re-branded white box systems with Linux preloaded, CompuLab continues to have an interesting set of original offerings that are Linux-friendly and built really well. The latest system we’ve had the pleasure of trying out is the Intense-PC2.
How to Build a Linux Media Server

Just about any Linux makes an excellent media server because it’s lightweight and stable, so you can use whatever flavor you’re most comfortable with. Any Ubuntu variant (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and so on) is exceptionally nice to set up as a media server because they make it easy to get restricted codecs. I have Xubuntu running on a ZaReason MediaBox. This is a simple system for playing movies and music. It is not a DVR (digital video recorder), and it doesn’t need a TV tuner because I don’t have any broadcast TV. No cable, satellite, nor over-the-air even. Don’t want it and don’t miss it. But if that’s something you want you may have it, because Linux wants us to be happy.
On normal people using linux, part 3

Another friend approached me to get rid of Windows, the problem was vulnerabilities and virus. She was an artist for life and paint, so I explained to her that Adobe no more and she didn’t really feel moved by that so I tougth “hm… this can work out”.
Desktop
- Make Downloading Files Effortless
  
  A download manager is computer software that is dedicated to the task of downloading files, optimizing bandwidth usage, and operating in a more organized way. Some web browsers, such as Firefox, include a download manager as a feature, but their implementation lacks the sophistication of a dedicated download manager (or add-ons for the web browser), without using bandwidth optimally, and without good file management features.
  
  Users that regularly download files benefit from using a good download manager. The ability to maximize download speeds (with download acceleration), resume and schedule downloads, make safer and more rewarding downloading. Download managers have lost some of their popularity, but the best of them offer real benefits including tight integration with browsers, support for popular sites such as YouTube and much more.
- Enjoy Five Gorgeous Linux Desktops from the Google+ Community
  
  Linux is a very customizable ecosystem and this is one of the main features of the open source world, the possibility to do almost anything you want with your OS. Every Friday, the Linux community shows its desktops on Google+, so we picked up a few of the most interesting to share with everyone.
Server
- Understanding the key differences between LXC and Docker
  
  Linux containers (LXC) has the potential to transform how we run and scale applications. Container technology is not new, mainstream support in the vanilla kernel however is, paving the way for widespread adoption.
- Linux containers startup Flockport launches first of its kind LXC sharing website
  
  Mumbai, India based startup Flockport launched a first of its kind Linux container (LXC) sharing website for users, administrators and developers providing popular web applications in portable containers that can be deployed in seconds.
  
  Flockport is based on LXC. LXC containers are like virtual machines, only lightweight and faster with near bare metal performance. The containers are lightweight and efficient, and easy to clone, backup, snapshot and deploy in seconds.
Kernel Space
- Intel Skylake’s MPX Is Closer To Providing Linux Memory Protection
  
  Besides Intel publicly working on Skylake “Gen9″ graphics support for Linux, Intel open-source developers are also working on other areas of Skylake hardware enablement for Linux. Work on supporting the Intel Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) that are new to the Skylake micro-architecture are still being revised for the Linux kernel and the many other operating system code-bases that need to be updated to work with this security feature.
- Graphics Stack
  - Radeon DRM With Linux 3.18 To Support Concurrent Buffer Reads
    
    Another Radeon DRM driver update pull request has been submitted to drm-next for merging in the Linux 3.18 kernel.
  - Intel ILO Gallium3D Driver Sees New Improvements
    
    For users of the unofficial Intel Gallium3D driver, ILO, it’s been updated with some minor improvements.
  - Intel Haswell-ULT Graphics Don’t Change Much With Linux 3.17, Mesa 10.4
    
    The Linux 3.17 kernel that’s currently under development does provide many new features overall but for those using the Intel HD Graphics of Haswell-ULT chips, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of any performance improvements and at least no regressions. Likewise, Mesa 10.4 isn’t doing too much for the Haswell hardware on the matter of frame-rates.
  - Wayland Is Still In Ubuntu 14.10
    
    Still packages and found within the Ubuntu Utopic (14.10) archive are the various Wayland packages. Right now within Ubuntu Universe is Wayland 1.5, the Weston 1.5 compositor release, and various other Wayland-related packages like for VA-API acceleration, the basic GLMark2 benchmark for Wayland, etc. Granted, most of these packages were just supplied by the upstream Debian base and are of no special interest to Canonical. The Wayland packages for Utopic can be found by this package search.
  - X.Org Server 1.16 Lands Officially In Ubuntu 14.10
    
    After writing earlier this week about a new AMD Catalyst driver paving the way for X Server 1.16 in Ubuntu 14.10, the updated packages have officially landed within the Ubuntu 14.10 “Utopic Unicorn” archive.
  - Wayland/Weston 1.6 RC2 Released
    
    The final release candidate of Wayland 1.6 along with the Weston reference compositor is now available for testing with hopes of officially releasing this quarterly update next week.
- Benchmarks
  - AMD RadeonSI Gallium3D Performance For 4K Linux Gaming
    
    While we routinely carry out Ultra HD (4K) Linux graphics/gaming benchmarks at Phoronix, it’s generally been conducted with the proprietary NVIDIA and AMD graphics drivers since the open-source drivers traditionally have had a challenge on performance even at 1080p. However, thanks to the maturing open-source Radeon driver stack, it’s possible with higher-end AMD graphics processors with the latest open-source Linux driver code to begin running at the 4K UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160.
Applications
- Calibre Is a Complete Software to Edit, Convert, and View eBooks
- Instructionals/Technical
  - Perform Multiple Operations in Linux with the ‘xargs’ Command
  - Share Files/Folders/Messages Using Cross-Platform ‘Dukto’ Application, Available For Ubuntu/Linux Mint
  - Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up SSH On Linux And Testing Your Setup
  - profiling is not understanding
  - Get started using the GPIO pins in RasPi issue 2!
- Games
  - Retrogaming With Linux
    
    You might be surprised to learn that outside of work, bringing up three children and a dog and writing about Linux that I try to find time for other hobbies such as being a navigator at classic car rallies and playing old computer games.
  - Train Fever is a modern-day Transport Tycoon with procedural content and a sophisticated city simulation
  - New ‘Grave’ Screens Arrive Ahead of Backer Demo
    
    Indie developer Broken Windows will be releasing a new demo for their upcoming surreal survival horror game Grave later today. The demo supports Windows, Mac and Linux, and will be available to any of 1,100+ people who helped its Kickstarter campaign raise over $37k in April. Only the PC demo has been confirmed, but there’s an Xbox One version that’s also planned.
  - Shovel Knight digs a tunnel to Mac, Linux version coming
    
    Shovel Knight has pogo-hopped his way to Mac computers, developer Yacht Club Games announced via its Steam and Kickstarter pages earlier this week. Steam users on Mac need not take any extra steps to get their copies up and running, but those who prefer to go through GOG and the Humble Store should keep an eye out for when new builds become available.
  - Play Linux Is a Gaming OS That Wants to Stop People from Dual-Booting with Windows
    
    Play Linux, an operating system based on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr) that focuses on gaming, has been released.
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Akademy Wednesday and Thursday Wrapup
    
    Akademy continues with hacking and BoF meetings. This wrapup meeting video covers sessions from Wednesday and Thursday including accessibility, release team, user information reporting, KDE applications websites, KDevelop and share-like-connect.
  - Beyond Unicode: Closing a gap in the support for mixed character set text in KDE workspaces
  - KDevelop 4.7.0 Released
    
    Today, the KDevelop team is proud to announce the final release of KDevelop 4.7.0. It is, again, a huge step forwards compared to the last release in terms of stability, performance and polishedness. This release is special, as it marks the end of the KDE4 era for us. As such, KDevelop 4.7.0 comes with a long-term stability guarantee. We will continue to improve it over the coming years, but will refrain from adding new features. For that, we have the upcoming KDevelop 5, based on KDE frameworks 5 and Qt 5, which our team is currently busy working on. See below for more on that topic.
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - I’m looking at you
    
    I write to you all today on a solemn matter, one which I fear will be forgotten and ignored if nobody starts some discussion on this.
    
    Earlier this week, some of you may have noticed that for a very short time there was a rather angry post by Philip Van Hoof, he sounded quite frustrated and disturbed and the title of his post basically said to please remove him from the Planet GNOME feeds.
    
    Unfortunately this blog post was even deleted from his own blog, so there is nothing to refer to here, also it was gone so fast that I have a hunch many Planet GNOME readers did not get a chance to see what was going on.
    
    What I want to highlight in this post is not this frustrated angry post by Philip, but rather the precursor which seems to have led us to this sad turn of events.
Distributions
- Free Linux Firewall OS IPFire 2.15 Core 82 Has Windows Active-Directory Single Sign-On Web Proxy
  
  Michael Tremer, a developer for the ipfire.org team, has announced that IPFire 2.13 Core 82, a new stable build of the popular Linux-based firewall distribution, is available, bringing quite a few security fixes.
- Building Linux Distributions That Aren’t Boring [VIDEO]
  
  Has Linux become boring? That’s a question that Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller is provocatively asking as he navigates a path forward for Linux.
- New Releases
  - Black Lab Linux 6 Beta 1 Released
    
    Today we are pleased to release the Beta 1 release of Black Lab Linux 6. This release has been in planning over the last several months and while we have been slaving away over it we have introduced some unique features.
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat extends its management reach to OpenStack and AWS
    
    Red Hat Inc. is bringing the centralized management and reporting capabilities of its Satellite platform to the hybrid cloud in a continuation of its efforts to expand beyond the operating system. The move marks the company’s first major product update since the departure of Brian Stevens, who set it on the course to becoming more than just a Linux distributor as chief technology officer.
  - Red Hat Sets Focus on Open Hybrid Cloud at GITEX 2014
  - Fedora
    - Guess What? Fedora 21 Alpha Has Been Delayed Again
      
      The Red Hat developers have decided to postpone the launch of the first Alpha for Fedora 21, yet again, for another week.
    - Fedora 21 Alpha to slip by one week
      
      Today at Go/No-Go meeting it was decided to slip Fedora 21 Alpha release by one week due to unresolved blocker bugs [1] and no release candidate available. More details in meeting minutes [2].
    - This Week’s Fedora Delay, Sparky Review, and New SteamOS
    - FUDCon LATAM, Activity Days, and Restructuring Fedora Leadership
      
      Fedora is a big project, and it’s hard to follow it all. This series highlights interesting happenings in five different areas every week. It isn’t comprehensive news coverage — just quick summaries with links to each.
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Running The Oibaf PPA On Ubuntu 14.10
        
        While Ubuntu 14.10 is finally getting X.Org Server 1.16, it doesn’t yet have Mesa 10.3 but that can be easily addressed via third-party packages.
        
        Mesa 10.3 will hopefully still make it into Ubuntu 14.10 ahead of its debut next month since Mesa 10.3 brings many new features to the commonly used open-source Intel, Radeon, and Nouveau graphics drivers (along with promising drivers like Freedreno and VC4). If you want to try running the newest open-source user-space graphics driver code on Ubuntu 14.10, it can be easily achieved today using the well known Oibaf PPA.
      - Windows 9 lifts features from Ubuntu and Windows Phone
        
        In the version of Windows 9 demoed in the leaked video, the Metro style Start screen has been replaced with a traditional Windows desktop, complete with the taskbar at the bottom with frequently used app shortcuts. One new element that wasn’t in prior leaked screenshots is the search icon. It appears on the taskbar, next to the Start button. On the right side of the search icon is, at long last, the Virtual Desktop icon. Virtual desktops, a feature that allows users to create, save, and easily switch between multiple desktop configurations, has been available in competing operating systems, like Ubuntu, for some time. With it, a user could have a desktop with several image and video editing applications open and running, and then switch to a different desktop used for browsing the web, or one with a running game, waiting to resume progress. It’s a useful way to manage system resources, as well as screen real estate.
      - Windows 9 to Integrate Multi-tasking Desktops Feature
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Jeff Hoogland Leaves Bodhi
        
        Jeff Hoogland, the lead developer of Bodhi Linux, said in a blog post on Friday that “for a variety of reasons,” he is stepping down from the leadership of his “labor of love.”
        
        Fate of Bodhi Linux in Balance as Founder Quits
        
        Our top story tonight is the resignation of Jeff Hoogland from his popular Linux project. Michael Larabel is reporting that X.Org Server 1.17 will probably have built-in KMS modesetting driver. Matthew Miller speaks to ServerWatch.com about Linux development. The Linux Rain reviews The Journey Down: Chapter Two. Unixmen reported today that Munich is giving out Ubuntu CDs to its citizens to increase Open Source awareness. And finally today, Leif Lodahl says Open Office and LibreOffice should join (or rejoin) forces to combat proprietary office alternatives.
        
        When And Why A GNU/Linux Distro Dies
        
        Today, Bodhi Linux is on Death’s doorstep. The leader is quitting, leaving behind a git repository. Bodhi is a nice idea, a light desktop distro that is well documented and using APT packaging. It certainly delivers what many folks need. Why is it dying?
        
        Stepping Down from Bodhi Linux Lead
Devices/Embedded
- AXIOM Beta Open-Source Camera Moves Closer To Reality
  
  The AXIOM Beta camera is designed to support two different image sensor modules (including the Cmosis CMV12000 that can allow up to frame rates up to 300 FPS), uses a Xilinx Zynq 7010/7020-based dual-core ARM SoC, supports various lens mounts, boasts three HDMI outputs with 4K support, and features a variety of built-in devices including a 3D accelerometer, 3D magnetometer, and 3D gyroscope. The camera, of course, runs Linux and fully open-source software. The camera’s hardware is also designed to be modular and upgrade friendly over time.
- Cortex-A5 SBC offers mainline Linux support
  
  Emtrion’s new SBC uses Atmel’s Cortex-A5-based ATSAMA5D36 SoC and offers HDMI, 2x Ethernet, a battery charger, -40 to 85°C operation, and draws less than 300mA.
- BattBorg: power your Raspberry Pi with almost any kind of battery
  
  “The BattBorg is a power converter for your Raspberry Pi which allows you to power the Raspberry Pi off batteries,” explains PiBorg’s Tim Freeburn. “It will work with most batteries/battery packs that are between 7-36V so it’s great for 12V car batteries, 8xAA battery packs, and so on. We’re including an AA battery holder in two of the kits as rechargeable AA’s are inexpensive, and readily available at most shops, and Ebay.”
- BMW Show off how you remote control the BMW i3 electric car with your Tizen Gear 2 / S Smartwatch
  
  The car is not simply something that you sit in to get from A to B. Now it is technically an extension of you and integrates with your wrist. Previously we have shown you OnStar remote controlling a Chevrolet car, well now at IFA 2014 it was BMW’s turn to show off their BMW i3 electric car, and also show what Samsung Gear 2 and Gear S users could do with their Tizen based Smartwatches.
- Robotic Arm Control from the BeagleBone Black
  
  In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to control a robotic arm from the BeagleBone Black. Then we’ll give your project the ability to manipulate real world objects and perform repetitive tasks for you.
  
  A robotic arm uses many servo motors to turn arm sections, wrists and move a gripper (fingers). The more servos used, the more moving joints the arm will have leading to greater flexibility. More servos also brings greater cost and control complexity.
  
  The base model of the Lynxmotion AL5D robot arm uses five servos; one for rotation, a shoulder joint, an elbow, a wrist and a gripper for holding things (sort of like the thumb coming together with all fingers).
- Phones
  - Android
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - This may be the first Dell tablet an Android user would want
    
    Intel Developer Forum is going on with full swing and Dell used the stage to showcase the world’s thinnest, Intel powered Android tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

Cassandra gets a clean up and speed up in release 2.1

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced on September 11 at the Cassandra Summit, the release of Apache Cassandra v2.1, the open-source, Big Data distributed database.
7 Crazy-Named, Crazy Good Open Source Enterprise IT Tools

Enterprise IT is a very serious matter, but you might not know it judging by the software tools that are often integral to enterprise application development and IT operations.

The list of odd names in today’s data centers and enterprise IT shops also highlights the ongoing trend of polyglot programming. Today’s applications and services are based on a wider variety of application components — languages, frameworks, databases, Web and application servers — and run on a wider array of infrastructure that includes bare metal servers, traditional data centers, virtual environments, and public, private or hybrid clouds.
Open Source is driving disruption in technology: Interview with Nithya Ruff of SanDisk

Nithya A. Ruff is the director of SanDisk Open Source Strategy Office. The company recently joined The Linux Foundation and we met up with her at LinuxCon to understand SanDisk’s plans for Linux and Open Source.
Be an entrepreneur with OpenSource, a talk for the II Forum of women and IT

This Friday 12 and Saturday 13, September (you know), will be held the II Forum of Woman and Open Technologies ( II Foro de Mujeres y Tecnologías Libres), organized by the ActivistasXSL, which will be held at the INCES at Caracas. I have been part of this group for several years, when I had the amazing opportunity of meet wonderful women that, like me, are part of this technological world.
Events
- Are You Going Conferencing?
  
  This year, we at FOSS Force are expanding our coverage of Linux, FOSS and OSS conferences. This got us wondering, in a self serving sort of way, how many of you regularly attend conferences?
  
  At this point, it’s looking as if we’ll have boots on the ground at three conferences, all scheduled for late October. In fact, we’re already hard at work coordinating our efforts to cover these events.
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Chromecast can play movies saved on your Google Drive
    
    Chromebook has become a true alternative of Windows and Mac PCs for an average user. Google continues to add more and more features to their Chromecast device. Now Chrome OS users can stream movies to Chromecast which are stored on their Google Drive.
  - Top Offline Games for Google Chrome
    
    Google Chromebook users sometimes have a hard time convincing Windows, Mac and Linux users why their laptop is a worthy purchase. This is because many people think that Chrome OS can’t do much of the stuff the usual desktop OS can do. After all, it’s just a browser in a laptop, right?
- Mozilla
  - Mozilla Thunderbird 13.1.1 Lands in Ubuntu
    
    Canonical has shared some details about a number of Thunderbird vulnerabilities identified in its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems, and the devs have pushed a new version into the repositories.
  - Mozilla Delivers Adapter for Cross-Browser Testing in Firefox
    
    If you work with web content very much, you’re probably familiar with doing debugging and content editing directly from within a browser. You may also be familiar with debugging and testing web apps across browsers.
    
    For some time now, Mozilla has been focused on delivering tools for doing development tasks directly within Firefox. For example, users have been experimenting with WebIDE, a development environment for HTML5 apps built into Firefox. Now, Mozilla is offering an adapter that lets it connect the Firefox developer tools with Chrome and iOS to help developers test their web apps directly within Firefox.
  - Firefox Add-on Enables Web Development Across Browsers and Devices
    
    Developing across multiple browsers and devices is the main issue developers have when building applications. Wouldn’t it be great to debug your app across desktop, Android and iOS with one tool? We believe the Web is powerful enough to offer a Mobile Web development solution that meets these needs!
    
    Enter an experimental Firefox add-on called the Firefox Tools Adaptor that connects the Firefox Developer Tools to other major browser engines. This add-on is taking the awesome tools we’ve built to debug Firefox OS and Firefox on Android to the other major mobile browsers starting with Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. So far these tools include our Inspector, Debugger and Console.
SaaS/Big Data
- Piston Cloud Computing Boosts OpenStack Security
  
  A key feature Piston is pushing forward in version 3.5 of its OpenStack cloud distribution is support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.
- HP buys private-cloud software player Eucalyptus in a nod to Amazon
  
  Tech giant HP is buying Eucalyptus, an early cloud-software startup. The acquisition points to HP’s acknowledgement that the public cloud spans beyond just HP’s data centers.
- In Buying Eucalyptus, HP Strengthens its Growing Cloud Muscle
  
  It was all the way back in 2008 when OStatic broke the story about a cloud computing project at U.C. Santa Barbara called Eucalyptus. At the time, Rich Wolski and a team of university folks were focusing on creating a cloud computing framework that would be open source but include the feature set and feel of AWS. That was long before the project gave rise to Eucalyptus Systems.
- HP buys Eucalyptus as cloud consolidation commences for real
  
  Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos, once known for his anti-OpenStack rhetoric, now leads the HP OpenStack private-hybrid-public cloud effort
- OpenStack automation with cloud deployment tools
  
  In the cloud world, the mantra is “automate everything.” It’s no surprise that as OpenStack expands its scope, automation projects are emerging within it. But, the variety and the sheer number of these projects is still surprising: there are over twenty!
- Mirantis and Piston Deliver New OpenStack Upgrades
  
  Mirantis, which has been expanding its set of training, support and development initiatives surrounding the OpenStack cloud computing platform, today announced the launch of Mirantis OpenStack Express 2.0. The offering now enables enterprises to deploy the most current OpenStack edition, OpenStack Icehouse as an enterprise-grade cloud service. The new release simplifies the setup process by providing a minimal Web form.
- [Event Report] Openstack Pune Meetup
  
  Swapnil started with what is devstack and how it help to start with openstack what are the requirements and OS which a member can use to setup devstack environment. He also talk about how we can change configuration (local.conf, stackrc, openrc ..etc.) during run time or after install and where all those files are available. Then he talked about devstack tools like upload_image, install_pip, info and what are available hooks. He talked about available plugins for devstack and moved to use of devstack after installation. He also talked about how we use tox for openstack unit testing and then gave a basic introduction of tempest/gerrit workflow.
- HP Acquires Open Source Cloud Pioneer Eucalyptus
- HP embraces open source in the cloud with Eucalyptus acquisition
- HP to acquire open source software company Eucalyptus
- What HP’s Buyout of Eucalyptus Could Mean
- H-P buys open source cloud technology company Eucalyptus
- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to Acquire Enterprise Cloud Open Source Software Provider, Eucalyptus
- Mirantis Releases OpenStack Express 2.0 with Icehouse Support
Databases
- There is no reason at all to use MySQL: Michael Widenius
  
  MySQL was once the most popular open source database (it still is), but it’s popularity and deployment is declining under the ownership of Oracle. The founder of MySQL Michael Widenius “Monty” was not happy when Oracle announced to acquire MySQL through Sun Microsystem. He created MariaDB, an open source, drop-in replacement of MySQL, which is gaining popularity lately.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- ‘Open and Libre Office projects should reunite’
  
  The software developers working on Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice – two closely related suites of open source office productivity tools – should overcome their schism and unite to compete with the ubiquitous proprietary alternative, urges Daniel Brunner, head of the IT department of Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court. Merging the two projects will convince more public administrations to use the open source office suite, he believes.
- Apache Open Office and LibreOffice should join forces
  
  Before I continue I would like to emphasize that I’m part of the game and therefore you should consider this as one of many voices in the choir and not some kind of “I know the truth” statement. I’m member of The Document Foundation and not a neutral opinion. I would also emphasize that I’m speaking on behalf of my self and not as member of any organization.
- LibreOffice cash-for-code strategy tests open source ethic
  
  The Document Foundation’s tender for the development of an Android implementation of LibreOffice begs serious questions, namely: Can an influx of cash into open source code creation succeed, and how do pay-for-code plays from nonprofit foundations affect the ethics and work ethic of today’s open source community?
CMS
- Step-by-step: create an online quiz on Moodle
  
  Teaching is called the noblest profession of all. When you teach somebody you give that person knowledge that they are going to use over a lifetime. As with any other profession, teaching also is slowly embracing technology in terms of remote education, MOOCs, online tutorials, and more. Typical of open source methods, it is helping a field innovate, helping teachers educate students faster and better.
Funding
- Engineering Group Becomes An Open Source Initiative Corporate Sponsor
  
  Engineering Group confirms its support for global open source communities and contributes to OSI’s growth
BSD
- CD-Sized Image Of BSD-Based TrueOS Released For Servers
  
  In announcing their quarterly package updates that bring a wide assortment of improvements, the PC-BSD crew shared they managed to make a CD-sized image of their TrueOS server operating system.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- ThinkPenguin wireless router now FSF-certified to respect your freedom
  
  Friday, September 12, 2014 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the ThinkPenguin Wireless N-Broadband Router (TPE-NWIFIROUTER). The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF’s standards in regard to users’ freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the first router to receive RYF certification from the FSF.
Openness/Sharing
- Tiny open source robot, Drupal’s creator on our changing economy, and more
- Open Access/Content
  - The True Story of How the Patent Bar Captured a Court and Shrank the Intellectual Commons
    
    Libertarians intuitively understand the case for patents: just as other property rights internalize the social benefits of improvements to land, automobile maintenance, or business investment, patents incentivize the creation of new inventions, which might otherwise be undersupplied.
Programming
- Twitter and Other Tech Companies to Adopt Bug Bounty Programs
  
  Twitter recently announced that it will give security researchers who find security flaws in its tools cold, hard cash, not just a pat on the back. The company is partnered with the existing bug bounty program HackerOne, which offers a minimum of $140 for each bug and has no maximum payout for bugs disclosed responsibly. Meanwhile, Gizmodo has called for Apple to launch a bug bounty program.

Leftovers

Drone captures Manchester Dogs’ Home fire aftermath

Aerial footage captured by a drone shows the burnt out remains of the Manchester Dogs’ Home
Apple’s free U2 “gift” angers many customers
HP’s Russia unit pleads guilty to bribery, pays $58.77 million fine

HP ultimately pays a $108 million tab to put violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act behind it in Russia, Poland and Mexico.
Security
- iPwned: How easy is it to mine Apple services, devices for data?
  
  Apple executives never mentioned the words “iCloud security” during the unveiling of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, and Apple Watch yesterday, choosing to focus on the sexier features of the upcoming iOS 8 and its connections to Apple’s iCloud service. But digital safety is certainly on everyone’s mind after the massive iCloud breach that resulted in many celebrity nude photos leaking across the Internet. While the company has promised fixes to both its mobile operating system and cloud storage service in the coming weeks, the perception of Apple’s current security feels iffy at best.
- Gmail Hacked? Not Quite, Says Google (but Change Your Password)
  
  Reports early Wednesday of millions of Gmail addresses and passwords being leaked had users of the popular email Web app understandably alarmed — but Google says the danger has been greatly exaggerated. “We found that less than 2% of the username and password combinations might have worked,” the company wrote in a blog post, “and our automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.”
- Friday’s security updates
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- Paul Woodward – War in Context
  
  Woodward maintains the popular website/blog, War in Context, which “from its inception, has been an effort to apply critical intelligence in an arena where political judgment has repeatedly been twisted by blind emotions. It presupposes that a world out of balance will inevitably be a world in conflict.”
- Will The US Launch Airstrikes In Syria? – OpEd
- Obama to extend airstrikes to Syria, send more advisers
  
  President Obama on Wednesday outlined a broad battle plan to defeat the Islamic State, including US airstrikes in war-torn Syria and an expanded American military advisory role in Iraq. But he vowed no US ground troops would be engaged in combat.
- U.S. has supporting, rather than leading, role in battling ISIS [Commentary]
- American Middle East intervention is ill-advised
  
  Nick IbarraThe decapitation of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of the group of militant jihadists calling themselves the ISIS (or ISIL, or just the Islamic State … it’s getting hard to keep up) struck a nerve with me as a journalist, as an American, and as a human being — and the desire to seek revenge is as easy to understand as it is entirely misguided.
- Air strikes, drones and advisers: the new template for America’s counter-terror fight
  
  US offensive against Isis militants in Iraq is an extension of the strategy the White House deployed in Somalia and Yemen
- Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia
  
  President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.
  
  The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.
- Obama’s about turn breathes life back into the Bush legacy
  
  The speech made by Barack Obama on Wednesday evening was one he hoped he would never have to make. Until now he had clung to the idea that his legacy in foreign affairs was simple: he had withdrawn troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and killed Osama bin Laden, thus disposing of George W Bush’s unfinished business.
- Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War
  
  Kissinger deflected criticism of the campaign, saying President Barack Obama has “hit more targets on a broader scale than the Nixon administration ever did.”
  
  “I think the principle is essentially the same,” Kissinger said. “You attack locations where you believe people operate who are killing you. You do it in the most limited way possible. And I bet if one did an honest account, there were fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks.”
  
  A reader suggested we run Kissinger’s comparative death tally through the Truth-o-Meter. We examined whether the Cambodian bombings killed fewer civilians than drones. The civilian death toll from both lacks precision, but by any estimates we could find, Kissinger is wrong. The only question is, by how much.
- Somalia: Retaliation car bomb kills four U.S. officials
  
  A reported car bomb rammed into a convoy of troops of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) on Sept. 8, killing 12 people, including a U.S. military commander and three others from the United States. Reportedly, 27 people were injured.
- US drone kills 5 Qaeda militants in S. Yemen
- Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia
  
  President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.
  
  The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.
  
  In the speech, the president pointed to the U.S. campaigns in Yemen and Somalia as successful implementations of this approach.
- Yemen and Somalia are examples of U.S. mission creep, not success
  
  In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama laid out in somewhat unclear terms the planned U.S. campaign to combat the Islamic State, a murderous terrorist organization that has gained strength in the midst of political chaos in Iraq and Syria. U.S. action in Iraq will involve sustained targeted air strikes combined with ground offensives by the Iraqi army and Kurdish militias already fighting the Islamic State. In Syria, the challenge is thornier, with the United States leaning on a constellation of Sunni Arab allies to help reverse the Islamic State’s gains.
- Bombing at a Press Conference Beats Mindlessly Flexing Military Might
  
  The Russia-Ukraine conflict “requires our participation,” declared John McCain.
- Thirteen Years Later — Here We Go Again!
  
  Here we go again! One can only wonder when we’ll ever learn. Wars fought in vengeance can only lead to more war. The impulse to strike back without any comprehension of why we were struck only leads to more strikes. Yes, terrorism is outrageous. But do we ever take the time to analyze the source of that terror?
- Beyond stolen celeb photos: sexism in the surveillance state
- Airstrikes Are Like ‘Casual Sex,’ Says Former NSA Head Michael Hayden
- Man Who Grew Weary of Sifting Through Your Sexts Compares Air Strikes to Casual Sex
- Retired Gen. Hayden Compares U.S. ISIS Strategy To ‘Casual Sex’
- Former NSA director explains to Jake Tapper how airstrikes are like ‘casual sex’
- Fmr. NSA director explains how airstrikes are like casual sex; Twitter perks up
- Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’
- Bombing People Isn’t Like Casual Sex
  
  Lobbing missiles into foreign countries is a lot like a one night stand, says retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden.
  
  “The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex: It seems to offer gratification but with very little commitment,” Hayden told US News & World Report Thursday.
  
  Hayden – who served as director of the CIA and NSA across three presidents – was commenting on the Obama administration’s new plan to begin lethally targeting members of the Islamic State, the militant group currently holding ground in Iraq and Syria. While he welcomed the strikes, Hayden’s point was that more would need to be done to eliminate the fundamentalist group.
- Another War Announced: 94,000 US Air Strikes Since 9/11
  
  On Wednesday night President Barack Obama gave a nationally televised address in which he vowed that the United States would “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”
- Feds Wielded Baseball Bat to Win Yahoo’s NSA Cooperation
- We don’t need another dumb war
  
  Back when he was just a U.S. senator, Barack Obama used to say that he didn’t oppose all wars, just “dumb wars.” I assumed that by “dumb wars,” he meant wars to address phantom or exaggerated threats (see: Iraq, 2003), or wars launched to achieve domestic political objectives (see also: Iraq, 2003), or wars begun without sufficient attention to alternatives, capabilities or strategic consequences (see yet again: Iraq, 2003).
- Can Killer Drones Stop School Shootings?
  
  Americans may be sweating UAVs’ privacy implications, but in Wyoming, lawmakers are trying to make sure police can have weapons in the sky.
- Wyoming legislative committee moves bill to require police to get warrants for use of drones
- Four Myths About Obama’s War on ISIS
  
  The idea that ISIS poses an immediate threat to the United States–as opposed to its non-Sunni Muslim neighbors–has been a consistent theme in the media, encouraging the public to support war. Rep. Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) declared on ABC’s This Week (8/24/14) that the Islamic State is “intent on hitting the West and there are external operations, I believe, underway.” When CBS’s Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer (9/7/14) asked Republican Sen. Marco Rubio if he thought they posed a “threat to the homeland now,” Rubio replied: “I do. I believe they do.” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Meet the Press, 8/31/14) said the threat to the country was “potentially very serious.”
- “The Mentality of Brutality”: Islamic State Beheadings and “Civilized Barbarity”
  
  In the eighteenth century, the French had a revolution during which they beheaded numerous members of the aristocracy and even invented a machine to make beheading more humane. The French are America’s allies too. Are they horrid barbarians? When does a nation whose people kill others indiscriminately stop being barbaric?
- U.S. Somalia strategy: Can a failed model destroy ISIS?
  
  U.S. operations in Somalia also include drone surveillance and drone strikes, although the U.S. official was at pains to stress that these always follow a clear chain of command and are by no means indiscriminate.
- US eyes Somalia strategy as model for IS destruction
- James Foley on the Dehumanization of War: Acclaimed Filmmaker Haskell Wexler Shares 2012 Interview
- Why I Wrote The Book About Predator
- Review: Good Kill (TIFF 2014)
- Toronto Film Festival: Good Kill – film review
- Good Kill: righteous take on US drone warfare – Toronto film festival review
  
  The disconnect of American drone ops is perfectly captured, but the supporting cast’s characterisations are one-dimensional
- A drone pilot faces a crisis in ‘Good Kill’
  
  Don’t be fooled. Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the way wars are fought, turning some forms of combat into a computer game with flesh-and-blood victims.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- German Minister calls for boycott of Shell
  
  “If you went to the Niger Delta and saw the standard of oil extraction, none of you would use the petrol stations of that oil firm,” he said. He said the company prioritized profit over concern for the environment. “That is unacceptable,” Müller added.
Finance
- Neo-Cons of the World Unite: You Have Nothing to Lose Except Your Slaves, Mansions and Huge Pots of Money
  
  David Folkerts-Landau, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, who has claimed that Scotland would have a “Great Depression” if independent, has a second home he bought for US $11.6 million dollars. His first home is in London – where he would have been well-placed to notice that Deutsche Bank was at the very heart of the LIBOR interest rate fixing scandal. Naturally neither Folkerts-Landau (he and his wife are friends of the Camerons) nor any other senior banker was jailed for that long term criminal illegality.
- Right-Wing Media Think Unemployed Americans Spend Too Little Time Working
  
  Conservative media are claiming that unemployed Americans are “lazy” because they supposedly spend too much time “shopping” and not enough time working or looking for work. But the data they cite includes the activities of stay-at-home parents, students, people with disabilities, and retirees who are “not employed.”
- Cutting Pensions and ‘Responsible’ Politics
  
  The race saw state treasurer Gina Raimondo prevail, and this was good news for those who believe that the right thing to do about underfunded state pension is to cut benefits. We’re told again and again that states simply cannot pay what they’ve promised to public sector workers–who are often targeted for being overpaid anyway (Extra!, 1/11).
- Putting the bankster foxes in charge of the BBC henhouse
  
  The Daily Mail revealed, one day after her appointment, that new BBC chief, Rona Fairhead, is being sued for supervising the laundering of billions of dollars for the Mexican drug cartels.
  
  From the Establishment dominated corporation there was not a hint of repentance, instead a secret gagging edict was issued to BBC staff not to mention or discuss the fact anywhere, specially on social media.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Scott Walker’s Favorite Judge Rescues Voter ID
  
  At a Federalist Society event in Washington D.C. last November, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker called 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes “one of our favorite jurists,” and joked about appointing her to the U.S. Supreme Court if elected president.
Censorship
- Google Shuts Down Stewart Baker’s Faux Attempt To Delist Techdirt’s Posts About Him
  
  If you’ll recall, one of the NSA’s (and TSA, DHS, etc.) foremost apologists, Stewart Baker, decided to highlight the ridiculousness of Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling by sending in a few requests of his own. One of the links targeted by Baker’s “for demonstration purposes only” requests was the tag “Stewart Baker” here at Techdirt.
Privacy
- Committee moves bill to restrict police drone use
- Hey parents, Uncle Sam wants your kids’ personal data — and will get it, unless you opt-out
- Kolab creates a privacy refugee camp in Switzerland
  
  The disclosure by NSA contractor Edward Snowden has exposed the ‘out-of-control’ surveillance system of the US and the UK. The more stories we are getting from Guardian and NYTimes, the more people are losing trust in the proprietary solutions offered by the companies which operate from the US and seemingly work closely with the spy agencies.
  
  This is a category of people who don’t yet understand the dangers of breach of privacy, but the more we are moving our lives into the digital world, the more important it is becoming to take control of our communication and privacy from the prying hands of those for whom we are the product.
  
  Then there are those need this privacy, due to the profession they are in or for purely sensible reasons that our privacy should be respected.
- Village expands its self-built broadband network
  
  Shunned by government and big telecom companies, a group of villagers in rural northwest Germany is set to expand the super-fast internet network they built to a second village. The Local’s Tomas Urbina went to meet the villagers as they prepare to put shovels in the ground.
- Bush Administration Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250,000 a Day if it didn’t Cooperate with Spy Program
  
  Yahoo’s participation last decade in the George W. Bush administration’s domestic spying program came only after the Internet giant was threatened with heavy penalties and fought unsuccessfully in court to resist the government’s orders to turn over private data about its users.
- Yahoo’s NSA challenge documents shed light on secret process
- Yahoo was threatened with $250,000 per day fine for opposing NSA data demands
  
  Over the last year trust in US companies has really slumped due to their complicity in the NSA surveillance programs. However court papers that were released show that Yahoo battled against the US government seven years ago over the expansion of surveillance laws. They also reveal that Yahoo was threatened by the government to hand over user data to the NSA for it’s PRISM program or receive a fine of $250,000 a day.
- Yahoo $250,000 daily fine over NSA data refusal was set to double ‘every week’
- NSA: Yahoo Threatened with Huge Fines for Refusal to Provide Data to US Government
- UPDATE 1-Wiretaps against Palestinians are wrong, Israeli ex-spies tell Netanyahu
  
  Dozens of reserve soldiers from Israel’s top electronic surveillance unit say they will no longer spy on Palestinians living under occupation, in an unprecedented rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security policies.
- Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military…
  
  Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military signals intelligence unit have said they will no longer serve in operations against Palestinians.
  
  Forty-three past and present reservists signed a letter about Unit 8200, which carries out electronic surveillance.
- 43 reservists refuse to serve, protest ‘abuse’
  
  Dozens of reserve officers in Unit 8200 — the unit of Israel’s Military Intelligence agency (Aman) that specializes in intercepting communications — have declared in a letter published Friday they refuse to continue and serve because of the way the army uses some of the information they obtain during their routine duties.
- Lisa Owen Interviews Glenn Greenwald
- Glenn Greenwald accuses New Zealand of spying on citizens
  
  US journalist Glenn Greenwald has claimed the New Zealand government is indiscriminately spying on its citizens. NZ Prime Minister John Key has rejected the accusation.
- Key dismisses ‘Dotcom’s henchman’ over spy claim
- ‘Dotcom’s little henchman’
  
  “There is no mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB and there never has been,” Mr Key told media this afternoon.
- Key dismisses GCSB spying claims from Greenwald
- When the US can’t spy it threatens
  
  In 2008, the U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications. At the time the company believed the threat was unconstitutional, but the US continued to insist that American tech companies participate in the National Security Agency’s PRISM program.
- Glenn Greenwald rattles New Zealand with ‘spying’ claims
  
  US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, said New Zealand officials are spying on their citizens, a charge that has provoked a harsh response from NZ Prime Minister John Key.
- Key hits back at Greenwald’s claims of mass surveillance
  
  Mr Key has always said that he would resign if that was proven, but tonight he’s launched a counterattack.
  
  Mr Greenwald claims he will produce evidence that could take down the Prime Minister, but just a short while ago Mr Key hit back and upped the ante big time, promising to get ahead of Mr Greenwald and declassify top-secret documents that will prove him wrong.
- Greenwald questions mass surveillance in NZ
- NSA denies whistleblower Snowden ‘raised concerns’ in emails
  
  In May, however, the NSA did release a single email Snowden sent to NSA supervisors in April 2013 in which he questioned legal protocols in training materials.
- US court updates phone surveillance program
  
  A US court overseeing spy agencies has renewed the government’s authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months.
  
  Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect “metadata” in bulk about phone calls without warrants which includes the numbers called and call duration.
- US court renews phone surveillance programme
  
  As per the federal bodies, the US court that oversees the spy agencies renewed the authority of the government to have a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months. It was attributed to the delay in the passage of the Senate’s surveillance reform bill.
- Smartphones, dissected
  
  From the brick-like Motorola to today’s concerns about spying, Elizabeth Woyke’s fascinating book traces the history of smartphones
- Despite Obama’s Pledge to Curb It, NSA Mass Surveillance Wins Rubber Stamp
  
  Mass surveillance just earned another 90-day blank check, nine months after President Obama promised to rein in the NSA’s spying powers.
- Lawyer for Edward Snowden: Positive Developments in Switzerland But Issues Still Remain
  
  The attorney general of Switzerland did a review of whether National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden would have to be extradited to the United States if he came to the country to testify as part of an inquiry into NSA surveillance. He concluded that Snowden would be safe from extradition, however, “upper-level government commitments” might still affect his safety.
- Snowden nails US lie on its economic spying
  
  The US government is an expert at taking the moral high ground when it comes to justice. But instead of being apologetic after the devastating revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in June last year, its top US officials, President Barack Obama included, have been claiming that the NSA has been doing exactly what every other nation does.
- Analysis Of Volunteer’s Metadata Stream Reveals His Life In Detail, Allows Passwords To Be Guessed
  
  Three years ago, Techdirt wrote about how German politician Malte Spitz obtained six months’ worth of basic geolocation data for his mobile phone. He then gave this to the German newspaper Die Zeit, which produced a great visualization of his travels during this time. That showed clearly how much was revealed from such basic data. Since then, of course, metadata has assumed an even greater importance, as it has emerged that the NSA routinely gathers huge quantities of it about innocent citizens. More chillingly, we also know that people are killed purely because of their metadata. But what exactly does metadata show about us? We now have a better idea thanks to the generosity of Ton Siedsma from Holland.
- Privacy International Lodges Legal Challenge To Official Secrecy Surrounding GCHQ Spying
  
  Although the scale of the surveillance being carried out by the NSA and GCHQ is daunting, digital rights groups are starting to fight back using the various legal options available to them. That’s particularly the case for the UK, where activists are trying to penetrate the obsessive secrecy that surrounds GCHQ’s spying activities. Back in December, we wrote about three groups bringing an action against GCHQ in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and how Amnesty International is using the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to challenge the spying.
- Dropbox Calls For Support Of The Senate’s NSA Reform Bill
- The creepy side of data mining: Selling “sick” lists
  
  When it comes to health care and data mining, the two are now merging in a way that might cause some consumers to feel sick.
  
  A segment of the data mining industry is tapping everything from social media to medical websites to create marketing lists of individuals whom are believed to suffer from diseases like diabetes or cancer, according to a Bloomberg report. Often, the consumers have no idea they are on the list, or that their names and contact information are being bought by marketers.
- Yahoo Fought the NSA’s PRISM Program in Court
- Privacy Groups Worry Americans are Losing Their Appetite for NSA Surveillance Reform
  
  This spring, Congress appeared primed for an Edward Snowden-fueled pullback of the nation’s spy programs. Then the world fell apart.
- On 9/11 Anniversary, Fox News’s Andrew Napolitano Compares NSA to East German Stasi
  
  Appearing on the September 11 edition of Fox Business Network’s Cavuto program, Judge Andrew Napolitano compared the federal government’s counterterrorism efforts post-9/11 to the East German police state…
- Independent Scotland would struggle to monitor intelligence, report says
  
  An independent Scotland would need more politicians and a way of plugging a crucial gap in expertise to ensure the activities of its new intelligence service and those of its UK neighbour were properly scrutinised, according to a report.
  
  It argues that the Scottish government’s proposals for oversight “may not be adequate to the task, or to the hopes of newly independent Scots”.
- The NSA is Monitoring These 5 Games
  
  If you thought only your gaming buddies cared about your online activities, think again. The NSA and its British counterpart the GHCQ are both monitoring online video games, which they insist make for excellent tools of communication, training, and even money laundering, but gamers are not so sure. So far most of their effort in the gaming worlds are confined to popular games like these.
- Shanghai civil service rolls out non-Apple smartphone programme
- Senior GOP Lawmaker: Snowden Belongs in Jail, Not in Switzerland
  
  The powerful chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has condemned Edward Snowden’s plans to seek political asylum in Switzerland, whose attorney general says the former NSA contractor could be immune from U.S. extradition requests if he manages to make it to the central European country without being arrested.
Civil Rights
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Everything You’ve Wanted To Know About Net Neutrality But Were Afraid To Ask
  
  Okay, ever since our big Net Neutrality Crowdfunding, we’ve had some new readers who aren’t as familiar with the details and issues — yet we’ve been mostly writing as if everyone is informed of the basics. So, we figured it only made sense to take a step back and do a bit of an explainer about net neutrality.
- Most Americans Don’t Want Internet ‘Fast Lanes,’ Poll Finds
  
  A particularly timely finding, as the public comment period for Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rule on net neutrality draws to a close
- Internet Slowdown Shifts Into High Gear
  
  Internet users spoke loudly, firmly, and in no uncertain terms on Wednesday in sending a message of overwhelming support for net neutrality protections during the Internet Slowdown campaign.
  
  Tech companies, websites, public interest organizations and more than a million users joined forces to bring the message of net neutrality forward by posting icons and links on their sites symbolically representing a slow-loading Internet, and by directing those clicking on the links to messages to Congress, the White House and the Federal Communications Commission.
- BitTorrent to ISPs: Pay us and our users to stay in the “slow lane”
  
  BitTorrent, Inc. CEO Eric Klinker doesn’t want Internet service providers to charge Web services for prioritized access to consumers—”fast lanes” as described in the debate over proposed network neutrality regulations.
  
  Instead, Klinker is (satirically) suggesting the opposite: that ISPs should pay companies and users to remain in a “slow lane.”
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - IT expert casts doubts on hacking allegations
    
    American computer security expert and hacker Jacob Appelbaum said that the evidence in Denmark’s largest ever hacking case is “tainted” and the prosecution “doesn’t understand anything related to technology at all”.
  - Dane makes first remarks in hacker case
    
    The Danish man accused alongside Pirate Bay co-found Gottfrid Svartholm Warg made his first public comments since being arrested in June 2013.

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/09/14/eucalyptus-devoured/feed/ 0 Links 13/8/2014: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Beta, Tizen in Watches http://techrights.org/2014/08/13/tizen-in-watches/ http://techrights.org/2014/08/13/tizen-in-watches/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:22:26 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=78912

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Want a fulfilling IT career? Learn Linux

How can understanding Linux enhance a career? This question is interesting because there are two drastically different answers. The first is the obvious answer that you can find through websites and studies everywhere, but the second is a little more subtle. And a lot more awesome.
How learning Linux can help your IT career
Desktop
- Low Cost Chromebooks Force Microsoft’s Hand in the Portables Market
  
  Chromebooks, low-cost portable computers that run Google’s Chrome operating system, are quickly becoming market movers as sales are poised to reach almost 15 million units in 2017. That’s the forecast from Gartner researchers, which also reproted that sales will hit 5.2 million units this year, up 70 percent from sales in 2013. Gartner has also reported that the U.S. education sector is playing a big part in this, noting that it accounted for 85 percent of Chromebook sales in 2013.
  
  There are strong signs that Microsoft is taking this trend seriously, and we may see unprecedented prices on new Windows portables designed to compete with Chromebooks.
- Acer Chromebook 13 has NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor inside
  
  Chromebook 13 is the latest Chromebook from Acer. It is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and is the first Tegra K1-powered Chromebook.
  
  The Tegra K1 is a mobile processor built atop NVIDIA’s Kepler™ architecture that features a 4-Plus-1™ quad-core ARM® Cortex™-A15 CPU. It is the same processor inside the NVIDIA Shield Tablet.
Server
- Supercomputer speed
  
  It wasn’t always that way. Whizz back to 1998 when Linux was still clawing its way out of the primordial binary ooze and just a single supercomputer ran it. Jump forward six years and that figure had exploded to 291 of the top-500 supercomputers and Linux never looked back. Now, I’m no expert (we could probably stop the sentence there) in supercomputers, but the benefits of a GNU/Linux OS apply as much to your home user as they do to supercomputer manufacturers. There’s no per-core licence to worry about – which becomes a big worry if you have 3.1 million processors to power.
Kernel Space
- Scholarships Help Increase Access to Linux Education
  
  What does a file system engineer living in Minnesota have in common with a woman from Uganda working on maintaining Linux systems and a research and computing scientist working at a medical university? They were among the five Linux Training Scholarship winners in 2013.
  
  Now in its fourth year, the Linux training scholarships from The Linux Foundation have become highly-sought honors by many of the most talented up-and-coming Linux pro’s in the world. With nearly 700 submissions received last year we’re very excited to review this year’s applicants in September (the submission deadline is Sept 2).
- XFS Introduces A Sysfs Interface With Linux 3.17
  
  The latest noteworthy pull request worth covering for the Linux 3.17 kernel merge window is of the XFS file-system updates.
- UEFI Forum Officially Announces ACPI 5.1
  
  While Linux kernel developers have already been working on ACPI 5.1 support since it brings ACPI on ARM, and there’s partial support in the Linux 3.17 kernel, the UEFI Forum today finally announced the official release of the ACPI 5.1 specification.
- The Linux Plumbers Conference is almost full
  
  The 2014 Linux Plumbers Conference (October 15-17, Düsseldorf, Germany) has sent out an advisory that the registration limit is about to be reached. “We are very rapidly approaching our attendance limit, this year faster than in any past editions of the conference. We expect that the conference general registration will be sold out soon, possibly even within a few days. If you have a vested interest in participating in the discussions, please register now, to guarantee that you will obtain a ticket for the conference.”
- Graphics Stack
  - AMD’s Radeon DDX Enables Hawaii Acceleration By Default
    
    We’ve long been monitoring the AMD Hawaii Linux support situation. AMD did provide same-day Catalyst Linux support for the R9 290 but took a while to get cleaned up. However, on the open-source side, it wasn’t until recently that the R9 290 open-source support got into shape with working 2D/3D hardware acceleration.
  - BPTC Texture Compression Support Lands In Mesa
    
    Last month we reported on Intel working out patches for BPTC texture compression support with their open-source 3D driver and as of today that support has been mainlined to Mesa.
Applications
- FFmpeg 2.3.2 “Mandelbrot” Now Available for Download
  
  FFmpeg, a complete solution to record, convert, and stream audio and video, is now at version 2.3.2 and it’s ready for download.
- TeamViewer for Linux Now Supports Image and Text Copy via Clipboard
  
  TeamViewer, a piece of software that enables users to connect and control remote computers with great ease, has reached version 9.0.30203 and is ready for download.
- MPlayer2-Forked MPV Player Releases v0.5 With A Lot Of Features
  
  The open-source MPV Player software that’s derived from MPlayer2, which in turn is a fork of MPlayer, is out with a new version.
- nn: Success this time
- html2ps: You thought it wasn’t possible
- Instructionals/Technical
- Wine or Emulation
  - Enjoy Windows games and apps on Linux using PlayOnLinux 4.2.4
  - Run Your Favorite Windows Software and Games with PlayOnLinux 4.2.4
    
    PlayOnLinux, a software that uses Wine (Wine is not an emulator) and that allows users to easily install and use numerous games and apps designed to run with Microsoft Windows, has reached version 4.2.4.
- Games
  - Leadwerks Game Engine Now In Beta On Steam For Linux
    
    The Leadwerks game engine is now available in an experimental form on Steam.
  - Original Dead Island Zombie Survival FPS Might Get a Linux Release
    
    Dead Island is one of the games that started this entire zombie craze in the gaming world. It’s an FPS that puts players in the shoes of a survivor right after a zombie “event” happens. You don’t have too many objectives, just to get out from the island you’re trapped on and survive.
    
    This title has been around for a few years now and it was originally released in 2011. It looks like the publishers think that Steam for Linux is the place to get a game out and they might be right. It’s a very good zombie survival title and it will probably run flawlessly on new systems.
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Phonon + GStreamer + VLC 4.8 Beta
  - KDE Applications and Development Platform 4.13.3
    
    Packages for the release of KDE SC 4.13.3 are available for Kubuntu 14.04LTS. You will recieve them from the regular update channel.
  - First Bugfix Update to Plasma 5
    
    KDE is now getting into the swing of releases numbered 5. Today we add Plasma 5′s first bugfix update. The release features KDE’s flagship desktop project as well as the base software needed to keep your computer running. Plasma will have feature releases every three months and bugfix releases in the months in between.
  - Kig on Frameworks!
    
    But the port to KDE Frameworks 5 is not the only exciting thing happening in Kig: the Google Summer of Code coding period is almost over and Aniket’s project about Geogebra support is in good shape, so you will soon see this integrated into the code; although we still need to decide about the right strategy to make this available to our user base. Keep tuned for more Kig info!
  - Monday Report: Old Style In New Form
    
    The basis of this theme is the old oxygen style, so he was able to reuse most of the code. Below are some screenshots of his work (without the Breeze window decoration).
  - KDE Frameworks Book Sprint at the Randa Meeting 2014
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - GTK+ 3.13.6 Updated To Work With Newer Wayland
    
    The GTK+ tool-kit is out with a new release this week that offers a lot of bug fixes but also several new improvements.
    
    First up, the new GTK+ 3.13.6 release has been updated to support newer versions of the Wayland protocol. Beyond that as the only Wayland change for this GTK+ 3.14 development release, there’s Adwaita theme improvements, a faster blur implementation for shadows, and a variety of other GTK improvements. There’s a total of 37 known bug-fixes in the GTK+ 3.13.6 release.
  - GTK+ 3.13.6 Arrives with More Adwaita Improvements
  - Teachers explain why they’re ditching iPads for ‘much more useful’ Chromebooks
    
    As popular as the iPad has been for end consumers, schools have also been a major part of the tablet’s success. Ever since Apple launched the iPad in 2010, schools all over the country have experimented with placing them in classrooms or giving them to students to bring home with them. The Atlantic reports that although many institutions were initially satisfied with the results, many are now beginning to see the potential upshot of affordable laptops over expensive tablets.
Distributions
- Users Can Back Up Their Systems with Clonezilla Live 2.2.3-31
  
  Clonezilla Live, a Linux distribution based on DRBL, Partclone, and udpcast that allows users to do bare metal backup and recovery, is now at version 2.2.3-31 and is ready for testing.
- Red Hat Family
  - RHEL 6.6 beta available for testing
    
    Red Hat has announced the release of RHEL 6.6 beta which is intended for testers. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Beta includes enhancements to both security and stability as well as:
  - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 beta is ready for testing
  - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Beta Now Available
  - Red Hat spruces up 2011′s enterprise Linux with RHEL 6.6 Beta
  - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Now In Beta
  - Red Hat Releases Project Atomic
    
    In April, Red Hat released Project Atomic, a prototype system for running Docker containers. This is Red Hat’s response to the interest in CoreOS a system for hosting Docker containers based on ChromeOS.
    
    Project Atomic is not intended to be another operating system; Red Hat already has RHEL, Fedora and now CentOS, so a fourth OS would not make much sense. Instead it is currently a prototype using Fedora, with a CentOS version slated to come soon, not yet a production product.
  - Fedora
    - Yum’s Successor, DNF 0.6, Brings Sought After Features
      
      Aleš Kozumplík announced the release of DNF 0.6 today with the version bump coming as a result of some user sought after functionality.
    - DNF 0.6.0 Released
      
      Since advisories listing and the updateinfo command are kind of a big deal for our users, we mark the first DNF to support it with a new minor release number: 0.6.0.
      
      Other notable improvements: added include configuration support and listing pending group operations.
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - It’s Official, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) Will Be Based On Debian Stable
      
      While Linux Mint 17 Qiana is based on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr and supported until 2019, the next systems will be Linux Mint 17.1, Linux Mint 17.2, Linux Mint 17.3, all based on the same Ubuntu 14.04, only Linux Mint 18 being based on a different system, Ubuntu 16.04.
      
      Until now, the Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) systems were based on Debian Testing, but this is about to change.
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - CPLANE NETWORKS Joins Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab to Accelerate Cloud Deployments
        
        CPLANE NETWORKS Corp., the leader in high-performance Software-Defined Networking (SDN), today announced participation in Canonical’s Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab (OIL). OIL is an integration lab in which Canonical tests cloud partners’ products in over 3,000 Ubuntu OpenStack configurations each month.
      - Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS Now Available on miniNodes.com
        
        miniNodes.com is proud to announce that it is the first hosting solutions provider to offer a leased Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ARM Server. By making available Ubuntu Core 14.04 LTS Linux running on Allwinner Technologies’ ARM processors, miniNodes.com is continuing to innovate and expand the market for ARM in the server industry.
      - Ubuntu Touch Gets USB Tethering, Makes Bq and Meizu Release EXCITING
        
        iOS and Android are ruling the world of mobile operating systems, being followed by Windows Phone and BlackBerry. But there’s room for more, and here’s what Ubuntu Touch brings to the table.
Devices/Embedded
- NI CompactRIO controller runs Linux RTOS on Intel Atom
  
  NI’s latest CompactRIO controller is supported by LabVIEW 2014 and NI Linux real-time for applications in harsh, industrial environments.
  
  This software-design controller provides data processing, custom timing and triggering, and data transfer from modular C Series I/O.
  
  The controller has an Intel Atom processor and a Kintex-7 FPGA for implementing complex filtering and control algorithms.
- Media player dev kits run Ubuntu, Android on Cortex-A9
  
  Toshiba announced wireless-enabled development kits based on its dual-core Cortex-A9 “TZ5000 ApP Lite” SoC, supporting Ubuntu and Android 4.4, respectively.
- Raspberry Pi based media player offers 1TB hard drive
  
  FiveNinjas has launched a “Slice” media player on Kickstarter based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, with a 1TB HDD and a customized version of XBMC.
  
  UK-based startup FiveNinjas developed the Slice because the developers found it annoying when their media players became useless when carried beyond an Internet connection. Unlike most media players, the Slice ships with a 1TB hard disk drive for storing plenty of video for offine playback.
- 12 Linux-Based Home Automation Systems for Under $300
  
  Home automation hubs have emerged as the tech startup product of choice in 2014, and most run on embedded Linux. The category has been re-energized with the dropping costs of wireless radios and embedded processors, as well as the ubiquity of readymade touchscreen interfaces in the form of Android and iOS devices. This slide show presentation covers 10 Linux-based and two Android-based home automation systems starting at under $300.
  
  Home automation systems have been around for more than a decade, but were usually affordable only to a few. Early Linux-based products include the circa-2002 CorAccess Companion, as well as later tuxified products from Control4, such as the Control4 Home Controller HC-500. While the HC-500′s $1,500 was a price breakthrough back in 2008, Control4′s entry level system is now an HC-250 model selling for under $500 plus licensing. You’ll find most of the systems listed here starting at under $200, with some hubs selling for as little as $49. Of course, you’ll likely spend much more than that on compatible smart devices, and equipping a large home could easily push you over the $1,000 mark.
- Top 12 Linux-Based Home Automation Systems
- Phones
  - Ballnux
    - Navigate using your Tizen Samsung Gear 2 / Neo with DMA Navi Watch
      
      DMA Navi Watch uses Google Navigation notifications from your device and displays them to your wrist. To setup the app you need to enable the notification listener on your Android Smartphone and your good to go, video instructions on how to do this are below. When your not navigating anywhere, the clock face works like a standard Gear 2 clock face. The App is available now to download from Samsung Galaxy Apps (depending on country and network availability).
  - Android
    - Android motorcycle helmet/HUD gains funding
      
      Skully has achieved Indiegogo funding for an Android 4.4 based motorcycle helmet with a head-up display, GPS navigation, and a 180-degree rearview camera.
    - Project Denver SoC will be the first 64-bit ARM processor for Android
      
      NVIDIA has revealed architectural details of the 64-bit version of the Tegra K1 System-on-Chip (SoC). Being developed under the Project Denver code name, it will be the first 64-bit ARM SoC for Android.
      
      The 32-bit version of Tegra K1 already powers several notable mobile devices, including the NVIDIA Shield tablet and the just announced Acer Chromebook 13.
    - Hurry! Aug 17th next closing date for Project Ara development boards
      
      Yesterday we reported on the upcoming and possible game-changing Project Ara. If you missed the post then follow the link to read our report in full.
      
      To quickly recap Google’s Project Ara is a completely new take on what a smartphone is. Google next year will launch a Modular phone which consists of small interchangeable modules (MOD’s). Each MOD will have a different purpose i.e. camera, identity, speakers and users will simply be able to change the modules at will and upgrade only the parts they want to upgrade.

Free Software/Open Source

How to Overcome Hidden Barriers to Open Source Adoption

Even when procurement policies don’t rule out open source solutions explicitly in this way, they often still have an unintentional bias towards proprietary software, according to Mark Johnson, development manager at OSS Watch, a body that provides advice on open source software.

“It may be that the way solutions are investigated by organizations actually favors companies that get license fees and are therefore able to offer presales support. Because the business models work differently, you may have to pay a company to come in and do a demonstration of an open source solution,” Johnson says.

“What that means is that companies may need to be aware that they have to be more hands on (with open source software),” he adds. “They can’t just expect to sit down and watch a PowerPoint presentation.”
CenturyLink releases Panamax open-source Docker management platform

CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) today announced the contribution of Panamax, a Docker management platform, to the open-source community. Ideal for even the most complex Docker architectures, Panamax gives developers a single management platform to easily create, share and deploy any Docker-containerized application.
OSI and Conservancy Announce US Tax Exemption Working Group

Software Freedom Conservancy and the Open Source Initiative are pleased to announce that they are the founding members of a working group focused on tax exemption issues for organizations in the United States.

Recent activity by the Internal Revenue Service in response to applications for tax exempt status have sparked a lot of interest and discussion amongst free and open source software communities.
Events
- Time to Register for Xen Project User Summit on Sept 15, 2014
  
  It’s time to make your travel plans to New York City for the September 15 arrival of the Xen Project User Summit!
- Time to Register for Xen Project User Summit on Sept 15, 2014
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
  - UbuConLA: Firefox OS on show in Cartagena
    
    If you are attending UbuConLA I would strongly encourage you to check out the talks on Firefox OS and Webmaker. In addition to the talks, there will also be a Firefox OS workshop where attendees can go more hands on.
    
    When the organizers of UbuConLA reached out to me several months ago, I knew we really had to have a Mozilla presence at this event so that Ubuntu Users who are already using Firefox as their browser of choice could learn about other initiatives like Firefox OS and Webmaker.
SaaS/Big Data
- Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos Cozies Up to OpenStack
  
  All the way back in 2008, before it was a commercial product, OStatic broke the news about an open source project at U.C. Santa Barbara called Eucalyptus, which we described as “for implementing ‘cloud computing’ on clusters.” Of course, fast-forward to today, and Eucalyptus Systems is one of the most discussed companies on the cloud computing scene.
- New Open-Source Tool Makes it Easy to Tap Into Docker, the Cloud’s Next Big Thing
  
  Your new app is brilliant; the code you’ve spent six months writing is beautiful. But when you upload it from your laptop to the web server, it just doesn’t work. You know why: your laptop’s is configured slightly differently than the server, and now you’re now going to have to spend hours — maybe days — figuring out what you need to change to make it run properly.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- LibreOffice might be coming to Android
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Denemo – News: Release 1.1.8 is out now.
- GNU Typist 2.9.5 released
Openness/Sharing
- How the Open Source Election Technology Foundation is Remaking the Voter Experience
  
  “The commissioners and others don’t want the recommendations to just sit on the shelf but to get these recommendations into the states to move them along, ” John Fortier, director of the Democracy Project, said in an interview with techPresident last week.
- Open Access/Content
  - Spain’s Ill-Conceived ‘Google Tax’ Law Likely To Cause Immense Damage To Digital Commons And Open Access
    
    Techdirt recently wrote about Spain’s imminent and almost unbelievably foolish new copyright law designed to prop up old and failing business models in the publishing sector. Mike mentioned that it was potentially disastrous for things like fair use, Creative Commons and public domain material — so broad is the reach of this new law’s “inalienable right” for publishers to be paid when snippets of works appear elsewhere.
  - Did Spain just declare war on the commons?
    
    Two weeks ago the lower chamber of the Spanish parliament approved a number of changes to Spain’s Intellectual Property Law that directly threaten the ability of Spanish internet users to contribute to the commons. The law introduces a number of modifications to copyright law that expand the scope of exclusive rights over areas that were previously outside of the exclusive rights of copyright holders at the expense of users rights and the public domain.
Standards/Consortia
- OpenGL 4.5 update brings desktop like graphics on Mobile
  
  Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques or SIGGRAPH is the annual event where graphics industry professional comes together to unveil their tricks that they have been working on for the year. This year at SIGGRAPH 2014, as is customary for them, Khronos Group took the stage to reveal their latest version of OpenGL, OpenGL 4.5. The announcement also included updates on their OpenGL ES as well as WebGL, all offshoots and parts of the OpenGL standard.
- After OpenGL 4.5, The Mesa OpenGL 4 Support Matrix
  
  Now that OpenGL 4.5 was released yesterday by the Khronos Group, while NVIDIA already has an OpenGL 4.5 driver, it will be a longtime before the open-source Mesa/Gallium3D drivers are able to claim OpenGL 4.5 compliance.

Leftovers

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/08/13/tizen-in-watches/feed/ 0 Links 20/7/2014: Jolla in India, Mega Censored in Italy http://techrights.org/2014/07/20/jolla-in-india/ http://techrights.org/2014/07/20/jolla-in-india/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:53:31 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=78601

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Kernel Space
- Linus Torvalds’ Workspace Is Nothing Like I Imagined (Video)
  
  As part of an ongoing video series from The Linux Foundation you can now nosey at the desk and work ethic of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. In the short 4 minute clip you’ll learn what he keeps on his desk, what he gets up to between kernel releases and witness him use a contraption called the ‘zombie shuffling desk‘.
- Linus Torvalds’ Home Office Is Definitely Messier Than Yours
  
  It doesn’t matter how organised — or cluttered — your workspace is, if it makes you productive, that’s all that matters. Not that it stops one from wondering if greats, such as Linux creator Linus Torvalds, operate in the equivalent of clean rooms as they go about making the world a better place. Well, it turns out Torvalds isn’t exactly stressed about keeping his home office in a state of perfection, as this video shows.
- Graphics Stack
  - MP Counters In Prototype Stage For Nouveau NV50
    
    Samuel Pitoiset has shared another blog post on his excellent work for reverse-engineering NVIDIA hardware performance counters and implementing the functionality within the open-source Nouveau driver.
Applications
- Geary Is Getting Ready to Take Thunderbird Head-On
  
  Geary, a lightweight email program designed around conversations and built for the GNOME desktop by the Yorba software group, is now at version 0.7.0.
- ansiweather: One-line weather report, with frills
- bm: A console bookmark manager
  
  I never really thought about a bookmark manager for the console; the browsers that I use these days — specifically elinks or Pale Moon — have onboard bookmarking systems already.
- Cloud Music Player Nuvola 2.4.2 Released with More Fixes
- Astronomic Observatory Stellarium 0.13.0 Officially Released
- Instructionals/Technical
  - Top 10! Fun On The Command Line
- Wine or Emulation
  - Wine 1.7.22 Arrives with Lots of Fixes for Games
    
    Wine 1.7.22 is a new development version of the software that has been announced and its makers have implemented quite a few changes and improvements, not to mention various fixes for a huge number of Windows applications.
- Games
  - Leadwerks Game Developer Toolkit Now Heading To Steam For Linux
    
    The Leadwerks developers have overcome some issues they faced that prevented the Linux version of Leadwerks appearing on Steam.
    
    So, this is good news for any game developers waiting on it, as you will have an easy way to get it and keep it up to date when it hits Steam.
  - Leadwerks: Blender Exporter, Steam For Linux Coming
    
    While Leadwerks has been out for Linux and Leadwerks is in the Ubuntu Store, it hasn’t been on Steam for Linux up to this point. Barring this Kickstart-funded Linux game engine port from being on Steam came down to a technical requirement — GCC mandating 16-bit ABI alignment. After help from Valve and Blitz Research, that issue has been overcome so Leadwerks will soon be released on Steam.
  - Top 5 Linux Gaming Emulators
    
    The history of Linux in gaming is quite poor, but this year so many changes happened in this area that we might be able to review top commercial video games very soon. By commercial I mean those created by most significant gaming companies like Ubisoft or Bethesda, and not indie video games. Even though real gaming in Linux based operating systems got a boost this year, emulators were everywhere to be found, for most known video game consoles.
  - Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Beta Update Now Uses SDL2
    
    The Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition game is a modest feature and graphics re-make of the Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition, Duke It Out In D.C., Duke Caribbean: Life’s a Beach, and Duke: Nuclear Winter titles. The Windows version has been out for a while on Steam while the Linux version is still evolving.
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - bringing green processes to Qt
    
    I’ve begun prototyping a system for green processes in Qt applications. I’m not yet at the code-writing stage, but the API is definitely taking shape and a design is starting to emerge. It’s a spare-time project for me, so is progressing at a reasonable but not extremely fast pace.
  - What’s new in KF5 porting script: convert-kdialog.pl
    
    When we want to remove kdelibs4support there is a class which is used by all kde application: KDialog.
    
    Each time that we wanted to create a dialog we used it.
    
    So it’s necessary to have a script to help us to port to QDialog now that KDialog is deprecated.
    
    When we port to QDialog, we need to add a QDialogButtonBox and mainwidget (if necessary)
    
    As in kdepim there is a lot of KDialog I created a script for it.
  - QML binary modules
    
    Developing a new project is usually done in two phases: first, the most important features are added, and the feature list of the project quickly grows. Then, the features need to be polished, bugs fixed, and the overall usability of the project improves slowly. This second phase is often considered less interesting than the first one, but personally, I like to fix small annoyances. Fixing them makes the difference between an experimental project and one that can be reliably used by real users.
  - Plasma Active Continues Coming For Qt5/KF5
    
    Being done as part of a Google Summer of Code project this year is porting KDE’s Plasma Active to their newer technology stack.
- GNOME Desktop/GTK
  - GTK+ 3.13.4 Features a Much Improved Adwaita Theme
    
    GTK+ 3.13.4, a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces that provide a complete set of widgets, suitable for projects ranging from small one-off tools to complete application suites, is now available for download and testing.
Distributions
- Arch Family
  - Manjaro 0.8.10 Netbook
- Debian Family
  - BitKey: A secure, Debian-based Live OS for bitcoin transactions
  - Debian 6.0.10 “Squeeze” Is Out and It’s the Last Point Release
    
    This tenth point update is actually a very important one because it’s the last one in the life of this branch of the Debian distribution, which was released back in February 2011. The developers have announced that no more major updates will be made for Debian 6.x “Squeeze, but there are also some good news.
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Canonical Issues Final Warning for Ubuntu One Closure, Get Your Files Now
        
        “This is the FINAL reminder to make sure you have retrieved all your data from Ubuntu One filesync, as we will be deleting all the content permanently on 31st July 2014. After that date, we will no longer be able to retrieve any of your files.”
Devices/Embedded
- Raspbery Pi Model B+ Released
  
  The Raspberry Pi foundation has recently released a new version of its really small and adaptable computer, this week. This is the third model of the device, which includes USB ports for input devices (keyboard and mouse), an SD card slot, an Ethernet port and an HDMI port to enable connection to a monitor or a TV.
- The DragonBox Pyra Moves Closer As OpenPandora Successor
  
  Michael Mozrek gave a presentation recently about his work as the project lead on the DragonBox Pyra, the slated replacement to the Open Pandora handheld Linux game system.
- Phones
  - Jolla sailing to India soon: Sailfish OS set to compete with Firefox, Ubuntu and Tizen
  - “I’ll Be Back” — After Reviving Meego Dreams, Jolla Preps for India Launch
    
    Mobile operating systems are kind of like comic book heros or horror movie villains — just when you think they’re gone for good, they come back with a new bag of tricks. Thus is the case of Sailfish OS, a challenger that’s on the verge of launching a high volume product to the burgeoning Indian market.
  - Jolla arriving in India in partnership with Snapdeal
  - Finnish smartphone startup Jolla set to enter Indian market with Sailfish OS device
  - Finnish smartphone maker Jolla set to enter Indian market
  - Sailfish OS powered Jolla smartphone launching in India next month. What to expect?
  - Jolla to enter Indian market soon with Sailfish OS smartphone
  - Finnish smartphone maker ‘Jolla’ set to enter Indian market
  - Jolla to launch Sailfish OS smartphone in India soon
  - Jolla to launch Sailfish OS phones in India
  - Indian phone makers look to penetrate Russia
    
    Local smartphone makers Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Intex have eaten into market shares of multinationals Nokia and BlackBerry, though South Korea’s Samsung still leads the market. Now the four are eyeing Russia.
  - Ballnux
    - Google and Samsung escalate hostilities over watches, Tizen and Android’s openness
      
      Google is growing increasingly worried that Samsung, its largest licensee, is working to undermine its own strategy for Android, while Samsung and the rest of the industry is concerned that Google has become a “bully,” according to a new report by The Information.
  - Android
    - Want to make your own CyanogenMod theme?
      
      If you’re familiar with CyanogenMod (CM) or simply part of any of CM’s social network you will be well aware of the CM’s Theme Store. For those of you who don’t know this is simply a CM powered theme generator which allows users to instantly change the theme, fonts, and color-scheme for the UI. Some themes are available for free while most charge a small amount to download and install. These are lightweight items for your device and simply change the aesthetic appearance completely.
    - CyanogenMod’s Apollo Music Player modified for Android L
    - First Android One phone landing in October?
      
      Ironically, in the world of mobile, there’s more than just one One. HTC, for one, has several Ones, and not forgetting the OnePlus One. One? One.
      
      Room for One more? How about Android One? Launched at this year’s Google I/O, it’s aimed squarely at emerging markets, and we’re hearing that the first handset might land as early as October.
      
      While Android Silver will see Google working closely with its best mates at the high end of the spectrum, the aim of Android One is to make a decent phone that’s truly affordable for every Tom, Dick, Harry, Sanjay, Raj and Mukul across the world.

Free Software/Open Source

EFF releases experimental open wireless router firmware

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced the release of the alpha version of an Open Wireless Router firmware. It was officially announced at the HOPE X (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference in New York City.
Standardized open source products are the key to unlocking the lock-in trap

Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, argues that when companies lock in to their own design and customizations, it’s as harmful as when they lock in to a vendor. Mickos explains why he thinks using standardized open source products is the best way to avoid both types of lock-in.
BSD
- FreeBSD 9.3 Officially Released With Updated ZFS Filesystem!
Public Services/Government
- Geneva class-rooms switching to free software
  
  All primary and secondary public schools in the Swiss Canton of Geneva are switching to using Ubuntu GNU/Linux for the PCs used by teachers and students. The switch has been completed by all of the 170 primary public schools, and the migration of the canton’s 20 secondary schools is planned for the next school year. Ubuntu GNU/Linux offers powerful services to the teachers, is easier to maintain, faster, safer and more stable than the decade-old proprietary operating system it is replacing, the canton’s school IT department concludes, based on several four-year long pilots.
Openness/Sharing
- Open Hardware
  - Makeblock Starter Robot Kit Review
    
    The Makeblock kit is all about assembling building blocks in three major parts: putting together the Arduino caddy, constructing a chassis for it and finally programming it via Arduino IDE.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition
- FedEx Indicted For Failing To Look Into Its Packages To See If Any Online Pharmacies Were Sending Drugs
  
  Back in March of last year, we were somewhat disturbed by UPS agreeing to forfeit $40 million to the US government for shipping drugs from “illegal internet pharmacies.” Not that such drugs or pharmacies should be legal (that’s a whole different discussion), but it’s insane to pin the blame for the shipments on the shipping company, whose sole job is to get packages from point A to point B. In fact, we don’t want shipping companies to be liable for what’s in packages, because then they have not just the incentive, but the mandate to snoop through all our packages.
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
- ‘Mysterious’ Plane Crash – Who benefits?
- Facts Needed on Malaysian Plane Shoot-Down
  
  It will likely take some time to determine who downed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people onboard. Initial speculation is that someone with a missile battery mistook the plane as a military aircraft, but the precise motive may be even harder to discern.
- Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment
  
  President Obama and the State Department’s “anti-diplomats” are fanning flames of anger against Russia after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. But some U.S. intelligence analysts doubt the popular “blame-the-Russians” scenario, reports Robert Parry.
- Three Lessons We Need to Heed from the Soviet Downing of KAL 007
- MH17 makes the situation in Ukraine an American crisis and an EU catastrophe
- Rebels, extremists have easy access to advanced missiles
- Russia: US implicating rebels
  
  On Saturday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US administration sought to pin the blame on separatists and Russia without waiting for the results of an investigation. “The statements of representatives of the US administration are evidence of a deep political aberration of Washington’s perception of what is going on in Ukraine,” he told Russian news agencies. “At least, that is how the relevant statements can be interpreted,” he said. “Despite an obvious and indisputable nature of the arguments provided by rebels and Moscow, the US administration is pushing its own agenda,” he said. Meanwhile, a rebel leader appealed to Russia for help with worsening conditions at the crash site of a Malaysian airliner, accusing the Ukrainian government of preventing experts from arriving and allowing bodies to rot.
- MH17 joins long list of commercial planes shot down
  
  Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was blown out of the sky while flying across eastern Ukraine, was not a sole casualty of warfare.
- Missiles are now so easy to get that it’s a miracle more planes haven’t been shot down
  
  Stinger man-portable missiles may also threaten the U.S. Army crews of Apache helicopter gunships recently dispatched to Baghdad to secure the airport and defend the U.S. embassy. Intelligence reports say that the Islamic State organization, also known as ISIS, has likely captured U.S.-made Stingers. In seizing major cities such as Mosul and Tikrit, and overrunning four Iraqi army divisions, Islamic State fighters have reportedly taken control of two major weapons depots, where Stingers were likely stored along with other sophisticated U.S.-manufactured armaments.
- Russia’s Missiles Stung the World Long Before MH17
  
  On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane operated by the CIA took off from an airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan. The existence of the U-2 was a secret. It had an unusual appearance created by its long, slender wings. These wings gave it the ability to fly at heights beyond 70,000 feet to the edge of the stratosphere, way above any other airplanes.
- All hands stained with blood
  
  Ricardo and Lugo flew back to Trinidad and checked in at the then Holiday Inn in Port of Spain. There, that said evening, that local police under Randolph Burroughs arrested them and found incriminating evidence that linked them to anti-Castro CIA operative Luis Carriles.
  
  It turned out that the CIA, and possibly higher officials in Washington, were aware of the plot to blow up the Cubana plane. Even worse, Washington helped Carriles escape and evade prosecution in Venezuela and/or Cuba (Ricardo and Lugo were jailed in Caracas).
- Ex-Shin Bet Chief: Israeli Illusions Fueled Blowup
  
  Yuval Diskin, who served as director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service from 2005 to 2011, posted some rather blunt observations on his Facebook page this morning regarding the tit-for-tat murders of teenagers, the Palestinian rioting in East Jerusalem and the Triangle (the Arab population center south of Haifa) and what he fears is coming down the pike.
  
  It strikes me that he’s probably saying a lot of what IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz was thinking at this week’s security cabinet meeting, when Gantz’s far more restrained comments led to a tongue-lashing from Naftali Bennett. In other words, this is how the current meltdown looks to much of the top Israeli military and intelligence brass. It’s what they’ve been saying privately while in uniform and publicly after retiring (and occasionally even while still in uniform). I’ve taken the liberty of translating Diskin’s Hebrew into English.
- Hacker Group Anonymous launches #OpSaveGaza, an intensive online offensive against Israel
  
  In an online offensive against Israel, the global hacker group took down hundreds of Israeli websites including that of Tel Aviv Police Department, which is still not available, at the time of writing this report
- Israel Vows to Escalate Gaza Offensive: 341 Killed
- Israel using flechette shells in Gaza
  
  The munitions are not prohibited under international humanitarian law, but according to B’Tselem, “other rules of humanitarian law render their use in the Gaza Strip illegal. One of the most fundamental principles is the obligation to distinguish between those who are involved and those who are not involved in the fighting, and to avoid to the extent possible injury to those who are not involved. Deriving from this principle is the prohibition of the use of an imprecise weapon which is likely to result in civilian injuries.”
- Israeli envoy to US lands in hot water
  
  Dubai- Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer landed himself in hot water Thursday when Palestine activists posted a barrage of sarcastic questions to his Twitter Q&A #AskDermer thread. The Q&A was held amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza. The hashtag, which was used more than 20,000 times, included questions that were harshly critical of Israel’s strategy in Gaza. Many tweets by activists were snarky, and others were angry. Eli Clifton wrote: IDF says houses, hospitals, schools and mosques are weapons depots. What were the “human shields” shielding on the beach? #AskDermer US Dept of Drone War wrote: A Palestinian walks into a bar. Do you A) Blow up the bar, B) Blow up the person’s home, or C) Kill 4 random kids on a beach? #AskDermer
- Israel-Gaza conflict: Baby killed by tank as IDF begins ground offensive
- Hamas raid kills two Israeli soldiers
  
  In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory.
- Despite Israeli Push in Gaza, Hamas Fighters Slip Through Tunnels
  
  Eight Palestinian militants emerged from a tunnel some 300 yards inside Israel on Saturday morning, armed with automatic weapons and wearing Israeli military uniforms, the Israeli military said. The gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at two Israeli military jeeps on patrol, starting a battle that killed two Israeli officers and one of the militants, according to the military. The rest then retreated underground, back to Gaza.
- Hamas Fighters Infiltrate Israel Through Tunnel and Kill Two Soldiers
  
  As Israel continued its deadly assault on the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants sneaked into the country on Saturday and killed two soldiers, delivering the worst blow to the Israeli military on its side of the Gaza border in years.
- Pakistan condemns US drone strike in NWA
- US drone stike on Pakistan compound kills 11
  
  Pakistan has condemned the US drone strike in North Waziristan in which 15 suspected militants were reportedly killed early Saturday, saying these strikes would have a negative impact on its efforts to bring peace and stability in the country and the region.
- Death toll rises to 11 in U.S. drone strike in NW Pakistan
- New York officer in fatal arrest placed on desk duty
- Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study
- Outrage Mounts Over Death of Staten Island Man Placed in NYPD Chokehold [Updated]
  
  When LIRR workers and the MTA reached an agreement to avoid the strike that would have begun on Sunday, it seemed that Mayor de Blasio and his family would be able to leave for their ten-day Italian vacation on Friday, as scheduled. But on Friday evening, De Blasio’s office announced that the mayor would remain in New York until Saturday “to attend to City business.” According to the New York Times, the mayor wanted to “spend more time making calls to elected officials, community leaders and members of the clergy, and talking to the police” about Eric Garner, the 43-year-old Staten Island man who went into cardiac arrest and died after NYPD officers put him in a chokehold on Thursday. Anyone who has seen the cell phone video of five cops piling onto an unarmed Garner can probably understand why De Blasio felt the need to at least briefly postpone his trip.
- Israel begins heaviest bombardment yet in Gaza, sending residents fleeing
- Opinion: Self-righteousness is the siren song of war
  
  Even the educated are not immune to these feelings. Consider, for instance, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a well-paid speaker and author, respected by many as an expert in international affairs. Yet, in an interview with Charlie Rose on May 29, 2003, Friedman justified his support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on the grounds that if we killed enough Iraqis, Arab terrorists would give up believing they can attack us without repercussions. He concluded by saying that “they” needed to see “American boys and girls going from house to house from Basra to Baghdad” and telling people to “suck on this!”
- Of Planes and Proxies
  
  In the nineteen-eighties, the C.I.A. handed out Stinger surface-to-air missiles to the mujahideen
- Clinton papers on Iraq, Haiti released
  
  President Bill Clinton’s advisers carefully considered how to explain the president’s military action against Iraq in 1998 as the House was debating his impeachment, according to records from the Clinton White House that were released Friday. The documents also touched upon al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, consideration of military action in Haiti in 1994 and preparations for Supreme Court nomination hearings.
- Top 6 takeaways from the Clinton document dump
- Clinton had asked for Bin Laden info in 1988 Clinton had asked for Bin Laden info in 1998
  
  The latest batch shows Mr Clinton asked his national security aides whether the CIA overstated bin Laden’s role in the August 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
- Markus R. case highlights spy game between Washington, Moscow and Berlin
- Can the US accept allies as equals?
  
  By expelling the CIA station chief in Berlin recently, Germany hoped to jolt the United States into paying attention. Germans are outraged by reports that American spies may have been working inside their security services. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that hostile operations like this “contradict everything that I understand to be a trusting cooperation between friendly partners.”
- Loss of trust
  
  A specialist on German foreign policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations has described the US as a “weak superpower” whose spying methods and surveillance on other countries is solely driven by a feeling of insecurity.
Finance
Censorship
Privacy
- As Feared, UK Data Retention Act Passed In Record Time; Fight Back Has Already Begun
- You should be horrified by DRIP
  
  If you care about digital rights you should be horrified by DRIP. The UK’s new Data Retention and Investigatory Powers law was rushed through parliament just before MPs go on holiday, with very little debate.
  
  The law forces communications companies to store all our data for up to 12 months so that the security services can snoop on them should they so wish. Companies were already doing this before, but then an April ruling by the European Court of Justice stated that the mass data collection interferes with “fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data”. DRIP — which went from draft to law in just over a week — reinstates the legal framework for spying on this personal data. If that’s not bad enough, DRIP attempts to extend the territorial reach of the UK’s powers to mandate the interception of communications across the globe. Any foreign firms holding data relating to UK citizens can be served a warrant to hand over information. This means that companies beyond the jurisdiction of the UK’s Data Protection Act must also store UK citizens data. How will this be safeguarded?
- NSA On Snowden’s Claims Of Passing Around Nudie Pics: We Totally Wouldn’t Allow That… If We Knew About It
  
  Following on the news that Ed Snowden told the Guardian how NSA employees routinely passed around pictures they had intercepted of “extremely attractive” people who were naked, the NSA has issued one of its typical non-denial denials.
- Mann film finds China, US on same side of cyber war
  
  Mann said that in the wake of 2010 Stuxnet computer worm, which attacked Iran’s nuclear program, he became fascinated with what was happening in the world of cyber-crime and cyber-espionage.
- ProtonMail and Subrosa: Encrypted communication for the privacy-conscious
  
  ProtonMail and Subrosa are two separate communications services that’s attempting to offer users a platform for secure, encrypted communication. They are trying to offer what’s come to be known as zero knowledge (also zero access) Cloud data service, that is, the service provider cannot read your data.
- Tor, trust and the NSA
  
  Tor is an anonymizing network that’s designed to protect you by “bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.”
- On the First Day of HOPE, Plenty to Fear
  
  Like Snowden, Drake does not fit the bill of your typical hacker icon.
- At HOPE X Conference, Protecting and Supporting Dissenters is at Forefront of Many Presentations
  
  The tenth Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference has been organized around supporting dissenters, especially how to support hackers or hacktivists who are targeted by the government.
- JPSO has no policies yet on how and when to use its drone
  
  The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office appears to be the first agency in the state to use an unmanned aerial drone for law enforcement purposes.
- Innocents lost as collateral damage
  
  The term ”collateral damage” was once primarily used to describe the victims within a conflict, such as those who died in war who were not soldiers but who still lost their lives. One side attacks a target and, in pursuing its aims, inflicts casualties and damage as a consequence of the attack. There is no intention within the action, but still it occurs. This is war. And war is hell.
- Arab-Americans take on hate
  
  “We have the power,” says Arab American Association of New York Executive Director and community civil rights activist Linda Sarsour in the promotional video. “We have the power. We have the capability and the opportunity here to change the way our society views our community to create a society that accepts our children and allows them to be proud of who they are as Arab-Americans and/or Muslim-Americans.”
- Backdoors and surveillance mechanisms in iOS devices
  
  Jonathan Zdziarski’s paper about backdoors, attack points and surveillance mechanisms built into iOS is quite, quite interesting.
- Dotcom to drop political ‘bombshell’ days before election
  
  Internet Party leader Kim Dotcom says that he will announce a political bombshell capable of toppling the Prime Minister on September 15 – five days before the general election.
- Key tells Dotcom to put up or shut up
  
  Kim Dotcom has revealed more details today on his “Moment of Truth” event, scheduled for five days before the September 20 election.
- Key to Dotcom: Put up or shut up
- Dotcom enlists US journalist for event
  
  Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom says he has enlisted heavy-hitting US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who blew open secrets about mass spying by the US Government, to help embarrass Prime Minister John Key immediately before the election.
- Edward Snowden: easy-to-use technologies can subvert surveillance
  
  Edward Snowden, a former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of major US surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.
- Reuters: Snowden asks hackers to build software to beat the NSA
  
  Edward Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of major U.S. surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.
- National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden seeks to develop anti-surveillance technologies
- Edward Snowden Plans to Work on Privacy Tech
- Snowden Tells Hackers of the World to Unite
- Edward Snowden Developing Anti-surveillance Technology
- Snowden to developers: create NSA-proof software
- Snowden Favors SpiderOak Over Dropbox
- Edward Snowden: Dropbox is ‘hostile to privacy’
  
  Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is no fan. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Snowden called Dropbox a “targeted, wannabe PRISM partner” that is “very hostile to privacy.”
- Edward Snowden Towers Over His Enemies
- Edward Snowden: ‘The World Is Much More Unpredictable and Dangerous’ Than George Orwell’s ‘1984’Edward Snowden: ‘The World Is Much More Unpredictable and Dangerous’ Than George Orwell’s ‘1984’
- India puts conditions on China for better relations
- US intelligence blunders pile up
- Big Brother Obama in a Backwards Cap Looks Down on Berlin
- German Artist Throws ‘NSA in Da House’ on U.S. Embassy in Berlin
- ‘NSA in da house’: German artist lights up US Embassy (VIDEO)
- Rand Paul at Reboot Conference: Idiots and Trolls in Washington Can’t Out Think the Market
- Rand Paul rallies crowd at Reboot conference
- Congress Hopeful Condemns NSA Surveillance
- Top-secret flashback: When I worked at the NSA
  
  So is national security any better now? We can’t “see” security anymore in the age of computers and passwords and all kinds of encrypted things. I sure could see the guy in front of me with the red light. It was a little awkward but effective. I was probably the least threatening person ever to walk the halls of the NSA, but they still kept an actual, physical eye on me all the time. I wonder what it means that, before we started to color code our level of threat, such a non-threatening consultant as myself would have required an escort at all times, and yet now, living at a time of more serious threat, a consultant like Snowden gets unlimited access to everything. Maybe the real threat is complacency and those pesky unintended consequences.
- CIA’s war of words with the Soviets
- Snowden’s life in Russia: ‘Much happier than be unfairly tried in US’
  
  Although he is “probably three steps from death” considering his way of living, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is quite happy and leading a “pretty open life” and not feeling any “oppressive surveillance” in Russia, he told The Guardian.
Civil Rights
- Protesters in Meridian Want to Uphold the U.S. Constitution
  
  Jason Casella also said that he is pleased that Emmett is the first city in the state to block provisions associated with the National Defense Authorization Act.
- A nurse at Gitmo refuses to force feed any more prisoners. Others should too
- Florida Gov. Rakes in Campaign Cash From CEO Who Makes Millions Locking Up Immigrants
  
  Florida Governor Rick Scott really knows how to pick a fundraiser. Last month, he was scheduled to attend a $10,000-a-plate event at the home of a real estate developer who’d done prison time on tax charges. Hours after Mother Jones disclosed the event, Scott canceled it. Now, on July 21, Scott will headline a $10,000 per person fundraiser at the Boca Raton home of another deep pocketed donor who is the CEO of a private prison company that’s profiting handsomely over the immigration crisis at the Mexican border.
- Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised
  
  Here are the facts: Debra Harrell works at McDonald’s in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald’s has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- That Comcast Customer Service Rep Wasn’t Going Rogue
  
  During her time at Comcast, Bruce attended an all-day training session, on a Sunday, four times a year. At the training session, 40 people would be lectured by a trainer who would give “pep talks” about the importance of retaining customers and making sales. In addition to managing calls, Bruce also worked at the counter, where she was instructed to try to convince customers to keep their service, even as they were returning cable gear following a processed cancellation.
- Verizon made an enemy tonight
  
  This Netflix video streams at 375 kbps (or 0.375 mbps – 0.5% of the speed I pay for) at the fastest. I was shocked. Then I decided to try connecting to a VPN service to compare.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - RIAA Now Bullying Fully Licensed, Zero Revenue Music Site
    
    Earlier this week it was reported how the RIAA had decided to turn the licensing thumbscrews on a site offering decades-old radio archives for download. Now another archival site, one that pays thousands of dollars in license fees to BMI, ASCAP and SoundExchange yet makes not a cent, is now in the RIAA spotlight.
  - [Old] Dotcom’s Mega Plans $179m Public Listing Via Reverse Takeover
    
    Mega.co.nz, the cloud storage company founded by Kim Dotcom, has announced its intention to go public with a backdoor listing on the New Zealand stock exchange. The deal, worth a cool NZ$210m ($179m), will be actioned via a reverse takeover of a local investment shell company.
  - Chrome Blocks uTorrent as Malicious and Harmful Software
    
    Google’s Chrome browser has started to block downloads of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent. Those who attempt to download the software are told that it’s malicious and harmful, hinting that the website might have been hacked.

]]> http://techrights.org/2014/07/20/jolla-in-india/feed/ 0 Free Software/Open Source-Related Links for September-October 2013 http://techrights.org/2013/10/24/foss-september-october/ http://techrights.org/2013/10/24/foss-september-october/#comments Thu, 24 Oct 2013 07:37:09 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=72666

Free Software/Open Source
- Open source is brutal: an interview with Google’s Chris DiBona
- Jobs Demand Rising for Linux and Open Source Skills
  
  Have you been looking for a job, or perhaps some work on the side? If so, and you have Linux or other open source skills, the news is good. Demand for Linux and open source workers continues to rise. We’ve covered this trend as reported by careers sites such as Dice.com, and by The Linux Foundation, but one of the most detailed breakdowns appears at LinuxCareer.com, through its IT Skills Watch report. In addition to reporting on demand for Linux skills, it breaks down how the demand looks for workers with skills in other areas ranging from PHP to Apache Tomcat.
- Rupee slide: Indian cos like iGate, Hungama Digital opt for open-source softwares to cut costs
  
  Indian enterprises are increasingly moving to open-source software, recognising the cost benefits and flexibility it offers over proprietary software. A falling rupee, which increases licensing costs, is likely to hasten the shift from softwares made by companies like SAP, IBM and Oracle.
  
  The government has already embraced open-source in a big way — the Aadhaar project is a case in point. Now, companies like Hungama Digital Entertainment, Uttam Energy, Bilcare, payment processor Euronet, insurer Star Union Dai-chi and IT outsourcer iGate — have also started using open-source software. And the list is growing.
- Twitter turns to open source to prevent service disruptions
  
  To prevent disruptions and scale up its service while keeping costs down, Twitter has had to drastically change its core infrastructure, taking up open source tools while doing so.
- Community management tips from Greg DeKoenigsberg of Eucalyptus
- United Nations lauds open source for water resource planning
  
  Unesco, the educational, scientific and cultural organisation of the United Nations, is promoting the development and use of open source solutions for water resource management. At the end of June, in Paris the UN officially launched a network of experts ‘Hydro Open-source software Platform of Experts’ (HOPE), to “contributes to the dissemination of innovative practices”.
- Special Journal Issue: The Unstoppable Rise of Open Source
  
  Oldenbourg Verlag just published a special issue on open source that I edited. Titled “the unstoppable rise of open source” it provides a five-article overview of open source past, present, and future.
- Why Open Source?
  
  In all my writing work, I use only Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to get the job done. I’ve been questioned about this a number of times, and the best answer I can give people is: It’s complicated. There are lots of reasons I use FOSS over all other options, and I think I’m ready to put them all out there for y’all to see.
- Finally SOS Open Source Goes Open Source!
  
  I am happy to inform my readers that finally SOS Open Source will soon be released in open source!
- Open source to bridge the global digital divide
  
  I vividly remember my first experience using the Internet in 2000. The amount of information I was hit with by typing my first search term, university, was far beyond my wildest imaginations. This plethora of knowledge filled my mind with wonder, excitement, and enlightenment. I suddenly had the power to read, analyze, and learn about anything and anyone. The knowledge created by some of the greatest minds in the history of mankind was at my disposal, free of cost and just one single click away. I felt empowered.
- Technology Trumps Dogma, And Other Open Source Insights
  
  Marten Mickos is one of the most respected leaders in open source. Here’s why.
- 10 open-source alternatives for small business software
  
  You can’t run a business—even a small one—without technology. You need computers, smartphones, file storage, a website, and a whole host of other tech assets. So how do you afford it all with a budget that’s tighter than a hipster’s jeans?
- IBM Releases FusedOS Operating System
  
  Just days after a brand new cloud operating system was released, IBM is out with a new operating system of its own. FusedOS is IBM’s new research project that’s now an open-source general purpose OS.
- Open Source Software is Only the Beginning
  
  Open source is all about collaboration. When you write some code and put it out there for others to read, use, and build upon, you’re giving a gift to the world. With the instant global communication the Internet provides us today, countless developers around the world can (maybe even anonymously) collaborate, giving and taking code, sharing knowledge with each other, and advancing our collective corpus of work.
- When Open Source software get nothing in return
  
  There was a slight compensation when the German city of Munich reportedly were planning to distribute free CDs of Ubuntu 12.04 to its residents. That’s a step forward but certainly not good enough. Why I say it’s not good enough is because they can do more – a lot more than what they are currently doing.
  
  Since these organizations will more than likely have their own support team and not rely on purchasing support contracts, the only reasonable source of revenue via clients buying support contracts for Open Source software gets blocked.
- Why and how to set up your own wiki with Dokuwiki
  
  DokuWiki is a simple but versatile wiki. Find out how to install, configure, and begin using DokuWiki.
- Open-Source Systems You May Have Taken for Granted: 10 Examples
- Quantity, Reason and enduring Freedom
  
  Where is Free & Open Source Software headed to? On the one hand, there is a trend that seems to veer it towards a more professional field, with new analysis and tracking tools that aim at improving not just the quality of code but its legal compliance as well. More and more large companies adopt FOSS either as users or as developers, or both, and that’s a good thing too. But does this announce the upcoming end of copyleft licences and that more structured approaches will ultimately kill the wild and spontaneous bunch that FOSS “once” was? No it won’t. First, the FOSS adoption among enterprise field does not depend on one license only. There’s also a lot of enterprise software released under GPL, by the way. But perhaps we have to accept and embrace Free and Open Source Software for what it is: an undefinable field that is at the same time a state of the art, a set of business models around software and services, a demand for our digital freedoms and a set of best practices on digital innovation alongside an extremely effective way to license software. And yet I’m not even sure I’ve covered it all. Today FOSS is growing not just in the enterprise: it’s at the core of the Makers’ movement and the 3D Printing revolution; it has inspired the Open Hardware movement, the Open Knowledge and countless other initiatives. Very few of these have reached a maturity stage and even inside the realms of FOSS development, things continue to be the same: at the beginning, a developer has an itch to sratch, and code to share with the world….
- How Things Work: Open-source software
  
  Most students at Carnegie Mellon have used, or at least heard of, open-source software. Examples of such software include the browser Firefox and the mobile operating system Android. Open-source software, in most basic terms, makes its code publicly available for modification and distribution by users. Proponents believe that creating an open community of programmers who modify software for their own uses provides the best possible experience for users, allowing them to customize according to their own needs.
- I Didn’t Know They Use Open Source! – Part 3
- Why Hasn’t Open Source Taken Over Storage?
  
  Open source products have very uneven penetration into the world of business technology. If you look at content management systems or languages, open source rules. But if you look at the market for ERP software or for storage systems, open source hasn’t made much of a dent.
Events
- All Things Open conference preview
  
  The dates of October 23-24 have been circled on my calendar for a while. Why? Because All Things Open is coming to Raleigh, NC. It’s the first open source-focused conference of it’s kind to come to the capital of North Carolina. I’m also excited because having the conference come to Raleigh fulfills one of the five pillars in my definition of an open source city.
- LinuxCon North America 2013: an air of Jazz
  
  It was really great to be able to attend LinuxCon in New Orleans in September. I’d like to thank again HP’s OSPO team and in particular Eileen Evans, VP leading it, to sponsor my travel there. HP is also a Platinum sponsor of both the Linux Foundation, CloudOpen & LinuxCon events.
- OSS4B, International Open Source Business Conference, Prato (Italy), 19-20 September 2013
- ‘All Things Open’ Conference Offers Enterprise & More
  
  When IT-oLogy opens the doors to the All Things Open conference in Raleigh on October 23, the focus will be on open source in the enterprise. That’s only fitting, given the fact that Raleigh is Red Hat’s playground–and Red Hat practically wrote the book on enterprise level open source.
- Live From LinuxCon: The CloudCast Podcasts on OpenStack Neutron, Canonical, PaaS Deployment, Puppet and Leaving VMWare
- 11 Keynote Videos from LinuxCon and CloudOpen New Orleans
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- GNU Make 4.0 Brings New Features, Extends With Guile
  
  Version 4.0 of GNU Make, the widely-used software that’s relied upon extensively by developers and those building their software from sources, is now available. GNU Make 4.0 does bring with it a handful of new features and capabilities.
- Who takes free software to new heights?
- Cambridge, MA Software Freedom Day recap
  
  People trickled and and were greeted by the friendly face of FSF operations assistant, Chrissie Himes.
- Pump API progress video
  
  Hey all. Things are busy here in MediaGoblin-land, but we’re making great progress. Since our last update several things have happened, including Natalie Foust’s branch being merged! So administrative tools have officially hit git master. That’s great news!
Programming
- Easy OpenCL with Python
  
  Use OpenCL with very little code — and test it from the Python console.
- When open source invests in diversity, everyone wins
  
  It’s results like this that convince Jessica that when open source communities invest in diversity outreach, everyone benefits. Since implementing a beginner series, intermediate workshops, and open source sprints, the Boston Python user group has over quintupled in size, from 700 members to 4000+. They are now the largest Python user group in the world. That type of growth is something all open source communities should aspire to.
- writing a lua interpreter
- Shell Scripting vs Programming
  
  The shell is the most basic of environments for working with your Linux system. Whatever you may think of working in a text environment, I guarantee that once you have fully experienced the power of simple text, you will be forever convinced. Text is compact. Text is fast. System administration over a network is best experienced at the shell level. Those forced to resort to graphical tools over a slow Internet connection are also quickly converted.

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/10/24/foss-september-october/feed/ 0 Links 14/5/2013: Android Growth Explosion http://techrights.org/2013/05/14/android-growth-explosion/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/14/android-growth-explosion/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 15:37:03 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=68495

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

NASA migrates ISS laptops from Windows to Linux
Debian Linux now Google Compute Engine’s default OS

Want to run Linux on the Google Computer Engine cloud? Starting immediately, Debian Linux is Google’s Linux of choice.
Linux-based Robonaut 2 preps for active ISS duty

NASA’s Linux-based “Robonaut 2″ is undergoing extensive testing on the International Space Station (ISS), and will soon be put to work. The humanoid Robonaut 2 will soon receive a major upgrade that will provide legs and an expanded battery pack, enabling it to perform more duties, including space walks.
Open source cellular targets rural comms

Start-up RangeNetworks is hoping that the combination of low cost and transparent software will allow it to break into the notoriously locked-down cellular network market.
Microsoft is lagging Linux

Microsoft’s kernel is falling behind Linux because of a cultural problem at the Volehill of Redmond, claims one of its developers.

The anonymous Microsoft developer who contributes to the Windows NT kernel wrote a response acknowledging the problem and explaining its cause.
Could Chrome OS Thrive in Public Kiosks and in Cars?

Could Google’s Chrome OS arrive on platforms that have hardly been discussed for it yet? According to rumblings from Google and some media reports, the answer is yes. Of course, there has been a lot of talk about possible mergers between Chrome OS and Android, and talk of Chrome OS tablets. But there are some facts about the guts of Chrome OS that could make it ideal for other applications.
A shot in the arm for enterprise Linux

This year’s 2013 Enterprise End User Report show the world’s largest enterprises are increasing their investments in Linux for the third consecutive year and management’s perception remains increasingly positive.

According to a press statement from the Linux Foundation, “These advancements are resulting in more companies wanting to contribute to the advancement of Linux and understand how to benefit from collaborative development.”
Open Ballot: The final frontier

With this, it seems, Linux has conquered the final frontier, but that doesn’t mean world domination is complete. So, our question is this: Where would you like to see Linux adopted next?
Desktop
- Samsung ARM Chromebook Review
  
  The Samsung ARM Chromebook is one of a few ARM devices that I prepare Bodhi Linux images for. As such I’ve owned the hardware for almost six months now and during this time I’ve used it a fair amount. The goal of this post is to provide a comprehensive review of the product to see if it is something that could be useful to you.
Server
- IBM Taps China’s Engineers to Develop Linux Business Software
  
  International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) opened a center today for computing systems in Beijing to help customers and outside software engineers develop business applications for the open-source Linux operating system.
- Rackspace: Can it compete with Amazon Web Services?
  
  Rackspace’s first quarter growth wasn’t up to expectations. The company could be facing an AWS squeeze with enterprises and developers.
Kernel Space
- Torvalds unveils first Linux 3.10 release candidate
  
  Linus Torvalds released RC1 of the new kernel on the eve of Mother’s Day, together with some advice on how to treat Mum/Mom right on the occasion.
  
  “So this is the biggest -rc1 in the last several years (perhaps ever) at least as far as counting commits go,” Torvalds wrote in the release announcement. “Which was unexpected, because while linux-next was fairly big, it wasn’t exceptionally so.”
- Linux Kernel 3.8 Reaches End of Life (EOL)
  
  Along with Linux kernel 3.9.2, 3.0.78 LTS and 3.4.45 LTS comes the thirteenth and last maintenance release of Linux kernel 3.8, as announced by Greg Kroah-Hartman on May 11, 2013.
- 30 Linux Kernel Developer Workspaces in 30 Weeks: Greg Kroah-Hartman
  
  Welcome to 30 Linux Kernel Developer Workspaces in 30 Weeks! This is the first in a 30-week series that takes a new approach to the original series, 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks. This time we take a look inside developers’ workspaces to learn even more about what makes them tick and how to collaborate with some of the top talent in all of software. Each week will share a picture and/or a video of the workspaces that Linux kernel developers use to advance the greatest shared technology resource in history.
- The Iron Penguin, Part 1
- Linux 3.10 Kernel Integrates BCache HDD/SSD Caching
  
  After being in development for more than one year, BCache was finally merged on Wednesday into the mainline Linux kernel code-base. BCache serves as an SSD caching framework for Linux by offering write-through and write-back caching through a newly-exposed block device.
Applications
- AMSynth: A More Sophisticated DSSI Plugin
  
  A couple posts ago, I cooed with joy over discovering Seq24. And last post, I pointed out SFXR (now in twilight development status) for producing simple low-fi sound effects. Now here is an app which is pretty capable at most of what SFXR does, and works as a Seq24 plugin as well.
- An Indicator for Cryptkeeper
  
  I’ve been very busy with life and work in general and I haven’t blogged for a few months now. I finally get the chance to talk about something I worked on in my spare time.
- Instructionals/Technical
  - Setting up a serial console | HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials
  - How to install classic gnome desktop in ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)
  - How to install Pepper Flash for Chromium Web browser on Ubuntu GNU/Linux
  - Linux / UNIX Clustering (High Availability) Tutorials
  - Linux Command Line Alternatives – Leave The Mouse To Rest!
  - Add disclaimer to outgoing messages in Postfix and Sendmail
  - Tool to write teach plasma the metadata of an wallpaper
  - The Perfect Server – Debian Wheezy (Apache2, BIND, Dovecot, ISPConfig 3)
  - How To Configure Apache To Use Radius For WiKID Two-Factor Authentication On Ubuntu
  - Home, My Backup Data Center
    
    New Linux users often ask me “what is the best way to learn about Linux?” My advice always comes down to this: install and use Linux (any distribution will do but something stable works better), and play around with it. Inevitably, you will break something, and then instead of re-installing, force yourself to fix what you broke. That’s my advice, because I’ve personally learned more about Linux by fixing my own problems than just about any other way. After years of doing this, you start to build confidence in your Linux troubleshooting skills, so that no matter what problem comes your way, you figure if you work at it long enough, you can solve it.
- Games
  - Ray’s the Dead a new zombie game heading to Linux!
    
    A story driven, action-stealth-puzzler where you create and control your own zombie army! I fell in love when the developers emailed it in. Linux and Mac releases from day 1 will be a stretch goal, so I dug to find out why!
  - Hairy Tales has been released for Linux
    
    A couple of months ago we talked about the possibility of a Linux version of Hairy Tales. What yesterday was pure speculation, today it has become a reality! Hairy Tales is now available for Linux at Desura, although currently only as a standalone download.
Desktop Environments/WMs
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Notes from Breakout sessions at Mataro Sessions II
  - Mataro Sessions II: the breakouts
  - Upcoming Krita 2.7: Updated Drag & Drop and Clipboard functionality
  - Calligra 2.7 Beta Released
    
    The Calligra team is proud and pleased to announce the beta release of version 2.7 of the Calligra Suite. This means that the calligra/2.7 branch has been created and from now on Calligra 2.7 will only see bugfixes but no new features. The final release of 2.7 is planned in approximately a month from now..
  - Krita 2.8 (prealpha): New “pseudo-infinite” canvas feature
    
    Does this sound familiar to you? Does going to the canvas resize dialog break your workflow? Don’t be frustrated anymore! Now you can just scroll down, click and… Presto! Add those happy feet to your drawing!
  - Nepomuk WebMiner 0.6
    
    A few month have past, this my last WebMiner update. In the meantime I finished my Master Thesis, moved to a new location and started my new job. Perfect time to release a new version with the changes I have made since.
Distributions
- ROSA Desktop Fresh LXDE alpha preview
  
  ROSA Desktop Fresh LXDE is the end-user edition of ROSA Desktop that uses the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. This is not the same as the LXDE edition which was released in June 2012. That one is the enterprise edition, which ships with Debian-style stable Linux kernel and software, and uses the Marathon code name. (See ROSA 2012 LXDE review
- New Releases
  - MEPIS 12 Beta
    
    A new test release of MEPIS 12, version 11.9.86, is available for testing. It may take up to 24 hours for the ISOs to appear at the mirrors.
  - Antergos 2013.05.12 – We’re back
    
    After a month since our last release under the name “Cinnarch”, we’re glad to announce the new name of our project and our first release being out of beta. We’re stable enough to make this step.
  - Manjaro 0.8.5.2 Community Releases unleashed (KDE, Cinnamon, Mate)
    
    We are happy to announce three new Manjaro Community Editions featuring Mate 1.6, Cinnamon 1.7, Gnome 3.8 and KDE 4.10.2. “Community Editions” of Manjaro Linux are released as bonus flavours in addition to those officially supported and maintained by the Manjaro Team, provided that the time and resources necessary are available to do so.
  - OS4 Enterprise 4.1 Released
    
    Today we are pleased to announce the release of OS4 Enterprise 4.1. With this release we bring many advancements to the worlds premier enterprise Linux platform. We learned a lot from our release of Enterprise 4.0 and this release is based on customer feedback. Starting with the user interface. Many of our Enterprise customers coming from Red Hat and Oracle Linux wanted a consistent user interface that they had become accustomed to with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Oracle Enterprise Linux and we believe we have achieved that and with some of the flare that OS4 is famous for. They also wanted features on par with what they were accustomed to on their platforms and what we came up with was perhaps the most feature rich enterprise Linux product on the market today.
  - Open source NAC PacketFence 4.0 released
    
    PacketFence is a fully supported, trusted, free and open source NAC solution.
- Arch Family
  - Cinnarch successor Antergos arrives
    
    In just a month since the last release of Cinnarch, during which the developers decided to drop Cinnamon for GNOME, they have produced a new release that brings a distribution that is more desktop agnostic than ever before. Cinnarch development was halted after the developers were finding it harder to synchronise the Cinnamon development with the rolling nature of Arch Linux.
- Red Hat Family
  - Ceph improves Red Hat support in new release
    
    The third stable release of the Ceph distributed storage platform, named the “Cuttlefish” edition, has enhanced Red Hat support and improvements to make it easier to deploy. Ceph, which is developed by Inktank, offers a distributed system that can be presented to users as an object storage system, a block storage system, or as a POSIX compatible filesystem. Ceph 0.61 now has RHEL 6.0 tested packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux available from the Ceph site and in the EPEL (Extra Packages For Enterprise Linux) repository; the company says it is discussing with Red Hat the possibility of including Ceph in a future RHEL.
- Debian Family
  - A little look at Debian 7.0
    
    Having a virtual machine with Debian 6 on there, I was interested to hear that Debian 7.0 is out. In another VM, I decided to give it a go. Installing it on there using the Net Install CD image took a little while but proved fairly standard with my choice of the GUI-based option. GNOME was the desktop environment with which I went and all started up without any real fuss after the installation was complete; it even disconnnected the CD image from the VM before rebooting, a common failing in many Linux operating installations that lands into the installation cycle again unless you kill the virtual machine.
  - Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?
  - Upcoming Features of Debian 8.0
    
    Now that Debian 7 “Wheezy” has been officially released and it’s ready to be installed on your Linux-powered computers, the developers can concentrate their full resources on the next major release, Debian 8.
  - A proposal for an always-releasable Debian
  - Derivatives
    - SimplyMEPIS 12 Reaches Beta Quality
      
      Warren Woodford announced this past weekend that development on SimplyMEPIS 12 has reached Beta quality and thus he has released a test image. This release brings some newer elements, but the announcement tells of the kibosh on two of them. With little else to go on, it was time for a boot.
      
      The graphics of SimplyMEPIS 12 haven’t changed since the alpha released last Fall. Some software version numbers have jumped, but some haven’t. The Beta features Linux 3.8.2, Xorg X Server 1.12.4, GCC 4.7.2, and KDE 4.8.4. GRUB 2 is default, but UEFI and GPT drive support have been “deferred.” Woodford said of that, “Unfortunately each hardware vendor is implementing the “standard” differently.” The MEPIS tools look pretty much unchanged as well.
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu Strikes Out on Its Own Again
        
        “I don’t know what’s wrong with Canonical,” said blogger Robert Pogson. “They seem not to understand that GNU/Linux is a cooperative product of the world, and wasting resources to do things differently when existing software is working well is poisoning the well. FLOSS is the right way to do IT, whether as a developer, a distributor, OEM, retailer or user.”
      - Ubuntu SDK apps to get own package format
        
        Canonical’s Foundations Team are creating a new application packaging system to sit alongside the existing “apt and dpkg” system that Ubuntu currently uses. The plan was disclosed by Colin Watson, technical lead of the Foundations Team which is responsible for the core of the Ubuntu system, in a mailing list post.
      - Ubuntu Developer Summit: This Week!
        
        Just a quick note to remind everyone that our next Ubuntu Developer Summit is taking place this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and is open and available to everyone to participate. This is the event where we get together to discuss, debate, and plan the next three months of work.
      - On Simplicity
      - Possible Changes In Ubunu 13.10 Saucy Salamander [UDS]
        
        Ubuntu Developer Summit is a meeting where software developers gather to discuss the next Ubuntu version changes and features.
        
        The Ubuntu Developer Summit (uds-1305) will start tomorrow, will last for 3 days and some major possible changes will be discussed, like “click packages”, Chromium replacing Firefox as the default web browser, Unity 8 with Mir being available for testing on the desktop and more.
      - Ubuntu – A Replacement for Chrome OS
        
        n the broadest sense Chrome OS is a consumer of Google Services. But it is not alone in this role. This topic has been broadly discussed in the context of Google services for Apple’s iOS and others. I am thinking of Google Maps and Google Now.
      - Ubuntu.com update
        
        I’d like to give an update on upcoming plans for Ubuntu.com and to respond to recent concerns about the positioning of the community within the website.
      - Ubuntu to stop Brainstorm
        
        The Ubuntu Technical Board has decided, at its most recent meeting, to finally abandon the Ubuntu Brainstorm ideas site. The site was created in 2008 to bring together the community and developers on a collaborative crowd-sourced platform where problems could be posed, ideas for solving the problems offered and users could vote on preferred solutions. If solutions were popular they could find themselves implemented by Canonical or Ubuntu teams.
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Mir in Kubuntu
        
        As you might have seen in Jonathan’s blog post we discussed Mir in Kubuntu at the “Mataro Sessions II”. It’s a topic I would have preferred to not have to discuss at all. But the dynamics in the free software world force us to discuss it and obviously our downstream needs to know why we as an upstream do not consider Mir adoption as a valid option.
        
        Ubuntu 11.10, 10.04 Desktop and 8.04 Server reach end of life
Devices/Embedded
- Cheap gigapixel rig made possible by Raspberry Pi, Lego, and open source
- Intel’s Silvermont SoC Goes for the Mobile Gold, but ARMv8 Awaits
  
  With its new Silvermont architecture, it looks like Intel has finally leaped forward in mobile. But whether it can ward off ARM’S upcoming 64-bit ARMv8 processors is another story.
- Phones
  - New Open Source Phones: Nearly Upon Us
    
    In a 2010 post here on OStatic, I asked this question: “Is It Too Late for an Open Source Challenge to Android?” Now, of course, we know that there are several open source smartphone strategies in the works that will be coming to fruition this year. Mozilla is moving ever closer to delivering its first phones based on the Firefox OS platform, and urging developers to build apps. Meanwhile, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth maintains that Ubuntu phones will ship in the coming months, and early reviews of the Ubuntu Touch operating system are already arriving.
  - Ballnux
    - Leaked benchmarks for the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 released
      
      It looks like all the rumors are coming together, as benchmarks have been released for an upcoming 8-inch Samsung tablet thanks to the Dutch website TechTastic. Sources at the site say they have discovered the 8-inch tablet in the GLBenchmark database, carrying model number SM-T311 (which we presume is the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0.)
    - Enigmatic LG device spied in wild again
  - Android
    - 5 Linux Projects to Watch on Kickstarter
      
      Spend five minutes browsing the tech press and there’s a very good chance you’ll come upon Kickstarter. Gone are the days when products had to be at least on the verge of release for them to get publicity; today, anyone with a cool idea can post it on Kickstarter—or one of its many clones–spread the word, and start raking in the cash they need to make it happen.
    - CyanogenMod 10.1 “quickly approaching” with release candidate
      
      The CyanogenMod developers have published a blog post, indicating that the release of a final version of the Android 4.2 (“Jelly Bean”) based CyanogenMod 10.1.0 is “quickly approaching the point where a ‘final’ build is due.” For this reason, the developers have now released the first release candidate for the upcoming version of their Android-based, community-developed firmware for smartphones and tablets. The team is still in the process of building images for individual devices, but once that process is finished, 40 different devices should be supported.
    - Android tops Q1 2013 ‘smart mobile device’ shipments
      
      First-quarter 2013 shipments of “smart mobile devices,” including notebooks, tablets, and smartphones, swelled by 37.4 percent year-on-year to 308.7 million units, reports mobile market analyst Canalys. From the operating system perspective, Android grabbed a healthy majority of units shipped, at 59.5 percent.
    - Canalys: Android powers 59 percent of smartphones, tablets and laptops
    - Facebook’s iPhone Culture Builds An Overzealous Home On Android
      
      Facebook didn’t realize just how important widgets, docks, and app folders were to Android users, and that leaving them out of Home was a huge mistake. That’s because some of the Facebookers who built and tested Home normally carry iPhones, I’ve confirmed. Lack of “droidfooding” has left Facebook scrambling to add these features, whose absence have led Home to just 1 million downloads since launching a month ago.
    - Google Preps Update to Android Gaming: ‘Google Play Games’
      
      If you’re a Google Gamer – as in, Android gamer – then there’s a bit of good news in store for you. A new leak in advance of next week’s big Google I/O conference has revealed a host of gaming-friendly features set to arrive to the Android platform in the form of a new “Google Play Games” service.
    - Nearly 75% Of All Smartphones Sold In Q1 Were Android, With Samsung At 30%; Mobile Sales Overall Nearly Flat: Gartner
    - Amazon launches Android app store in China
      
      Reuters reports news this week of Amazon.com launching an Android application store in China offering “paid” and free applications.
      
      With this move Amazon effectively beats Google (whose store only offers free open source apps) in terms of the amount of digital content it offers to what is indisputably the world’s largest mobile phone market.
    - Sony Xperia A hits the FCC with 5-inch screen and removable battery
    - ASUS ‘We Transform’ Computex teaser leaves us waiting for more teaser videos
      
      Just like last year, ASUS is filling time before the Computex trade show by posting teaser trailers. Sporting a “We Transform” tag, its first one for 2013 features the spun metal casings, touchscreen laptops, convertibles, tablets and phones we’ve become accustomed to from the company. So what’s next?
    - New project ‘Earl’ promises a rugged Android tablet with solar charging, e-ink
    - Sony Xperia Honami Concept
      
      Few days ago we heard the rumor about a upcoming Sony flagship device which is known as “Xperia Honami”. There was another rumored model “Xperia Togari” a 6.4″ phablet to come out in the 2nd half of 2013. Sony also introduced a new Series of product lineup named “One Sony” where people can get the best out of Sony’s latest technologies in a single product. The Xperia Honami is expected to follow up the One Sony line.
    - Refreshed Nexus 7 details emerge ahead of Google I/O
    - Android now powers almost 60% of mobile devices – about 3 times the amount of iOS devices
    - Motorola XT1058 ‘XFON’ swings through FCC
    - Sony announces new Xperia ZR, a smaller waterproof cousin of the Xperia Z
    - No Home for Facebook at AT&T: HTC First to be discontinued
      
      The HTC First, or “Facebook phone” as many prefer to call it, is officially a flop. It certainly wasn’t a good sign when AT&T dropped the price of HTC’s First to $0.99 just one month after its debut, and now BGR has confirmed that HTC and Facebook’s little experiment is nearing its end. BGR has learned from a trusted source that sales of the HTC First have been shockingly bad. So bad, in fact, that AT&T has already decided to discontinue the phone.
    - Archos intros ChefPad, kitchen-based Android tablet
    - New Android Boss Finally Reveals Plans for World’s Most Popular Mobile OS
      
      WIRED: The Android handover from Andy Rubin to you seemed sudden and mysterious to us on the outside. Was it long in the works?
      
      PICHAI: I got to know only towards the end of the process of Andy deciding to step back. It played out in a rapid time fashion over the couple weeks prior to the actual announcement. I am passionate about computing and so to me, it was very exciting to be in a position where I could make an impact on that scale.
    - Ouya delays retail launch until June 25th to ensure it can meet demand
    - Ouya Android-based Game Console On Track for June Delivery

Free Software/Open Source

The International Space Station Goes Linux and RunRev goes open source
Is Open Always Better?

As supporters of open source software, our knee-jerk reaction to the question of if open development always results in better quality code is often an unqualified, “yes, of course!”. However, it may do the community good to take an objective look at the state of some of our projects, and how it reflects on the open source movement as a whole. It has been my experience that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, proprietary software is fantastic, and it would do us all a bit of good to ask why.
Open-source RF boards available from Richardson RFPD

The open-source RF design initiative, dubbed Myriad, has the support of US-based distributor Richardson RFPD.

Richardson RFPD will begin stocking and selling the Myriad-RF-1 board to customers around the world via its website immediately.
Open source Java projects: Akka

The actor model is a message-passing paradigm that resolves some of the major challenges of writing concurrent, scalable code for today’s distributed systems. In this installment of Open source Java projects, Steven Haines introduces Akka, a JVM-based toolkit and runtime that implements the actor model. Get started with a simple program that demonstrates how an Akka message passing system is wired together, then build a more complex program that uses concurrent processes to compute prime numbers.
Events
- Upcoming Conferences Bode Well for Open Source Fans
  
  Details are emerging for some of the most important technology conferences of the next several months, which promise to feature lots of compelling speakers and content for open source fans. The Google I/O conference begins this week in Northern California, and is likely to bring with it lots of news related to Android and Google’s phone and tablet strategies. Meanwhile, The Linux Foundation has announced the keynote speakers for LinuxCon and CloudOpen North America, taking place September 16-18, 2013 at the Hyatt New Orleans in New Orleans, La.
- Gabe Newell and Eben Upton to keynote LinuxCon
  
  Valve Software boss Gabe Newell and Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton have been announced as keynote speakers for the Linux Foundation’s LinuxCon and Cloud Open North America conferences. The two events will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana from 16 to 18 September. Newell and Upton will be joining Jonathan Bryce of the OpenStack Foundation, HP Labs Director Martin Fink, and representatives from Intel and Wired Magazine on stage as keynote speakers. The popular Linux Kernel Panel, which features leading kernel developers and maintainers discussing the future of the open source operating system, will also be back.
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Packaged Apps for Chrome Browser Point to Google’s Long-Term App Strategy
    
    While it hasn’t generated a whole lot of buzz yet, Google has begun to take the wraps off of a strategy that will allow users of the Chrome browser to easily find and run “packaged apps” just like sophisticated web apps that users of Chrome OS are used to running. In an announcement on the Chromium Blog, Google officials unveiled a developer preview of Chrome packaged apps and the Chrome App Launcher. Chrome packaged apps are now available in the Chrome Web Store for anyone on Chrome’s developer channel on Windows or Chrome OS.
  - Google Delivers Tools for Integrating Chrome with iOS Apps
- Mozilla
  - Fourth cycle approaches for Mozilla’s WebFWD open accelerator
    
    Mozilla’s WebFWD programme is seeking applications for its fourth cycle of classes which are designed to teach new innovators to build healthy businesses by embracing the best of open source and startup principles. By getting entrepreneurs to create businesses what make the Web better and more open, Mozilla hopes to ensure that future businesses on the internet are more effective in enabling an open web.
  - Mozilla Can’t Seem to Keep its Firefox OS Strategy Straight
    
    As I noted yesterday, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs (who will be leaving his CEO post this year) made very clear in comments at the All Things D: Dive Into Mobile conference that Mozilla has very ambitious plans for its new Firefox OS mobile operating system. Specifically, he sees it as an innovation-centric platform. As quoted by ABC News, Kovacs said, “We haven’t done a great job [on mobile browsing]. I’m expecting someone will do an Apple on the whole browsing experience.”
  - Australis launches in Firefox UX versions
    
    The Firefox Australis theme that is going to be released later this year if things go as planned seems to split the community. Some users are looking forward to a modernized theme while others fear that it will change the browser that they are using in away that it is not as customizable and usable anymore.
  - Mozilla’s Firefox OS will also appear on high-end phones
    
    The upcoming Firefox OS will appear on higher-end smartphones, and not just entry-level handsets, with Sony expected to release a premium device running the operating system, a Mozilla executive said.
    
    “Sony is known for quality and user experience. So they are targeting for very very high (end). We are in joint discussions on the kind of device and what’s the product,” said Li Gong, Mozilla’s senior vice president for mobile devices.
  - You should remove everything after the ? when you share a link
SaaS/Big Data
- How Open Source Python Drives the OpenStack Cloud [VIDEO]
  
  There are a lot of different programming languages in use today. When it comes to the cloud, thanks in part to the strong position of OpenStack, the open source Python language has emerged as being one of the most important. OpenStack is written in Python and is in used by many leading IT vendors including IBM, HP, Dell and Cisco.
- The role of open source in cloud infrastructure
  
  Today, open source cloud platforms are winning the IaaS battle, open source storage and file systems are expanding their footprint, and open source databases are replacing closed source rivals. Marten Mickos, CEO, Eucalyptus Systems explains why nearly everything is being snatched by open source software
- OpenNebula Releases First Open Source Enterprise Cloud Manager
- OpenNebula 4.0 Released – The Finest Open-source Enterprise Cloud Manager!
  
  The fourth generation of OpenNebula is the result of seven years of continuous innovation in close collaboration with its users
  
  The OpenNebula Project is proud to announce the fourth major release of its widely deployed OpenNebula cloud management platform, a fully open-source enterprise-grade solution to build and manage virtualized data centers and enterprise clouds. OpenNebula 4.0 (codename Eagle) brings valuable contributions from many of its thousands of users that include leading research and supercomputing centers like FermiLab, NASA, ESA and SARA; and industry leaders like Blackberry, China Mobile, Dell, Cisco, Akamai and Telefonica O2.
Databases
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- LibreOffice 4.0.3 packages ready for download (and a rant)
- LibreOffice 4.0.3 now Gatekeeper compliant
  
  The Document Foundation has announced the release of LibreOffice 4.0.3, the third maintenance release of the current 4.0 series. The new version brings a number of bug fixes to the open source office suite and the binaries for Mac OS X are now signed by the Foundation and will pass the operating system’s Gatekeeper security system without user intervention.
Business
Funding
- Former Activision Execs Interested in the Delta Six: An Open Source Gaming Gun On Kickstarter
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Study: open source remixing seems to lead to less original work
  
  What is it that means one open source project takes off, while another doesn’t? There are a lot of ways to analyse this question depending on the example at hand, but a more general study of the “remixability” of online content has found a surprising correlation — there’s a trade-off between originality and the chance it will inspire new versions.
  
  Researchers Benjamin Mako Hill from MIT and Andrés Monroy-Hernández from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University wanted to look at a particular dilemma — despite “proponents of remix culture often speaking of remixing in terms of rich ecosystems where creative works are novel and highly generative”, actual examples of it happening “can be difficult to find”, Monroy-Hernández writes on Hill’s blog.
Project Releases
- Graph processing platform Apache Giraph reaches 1.0
  
  Used by Facebook and Yahoo, the Apache Giraph project for distributed graph processing has released version 1.0. This is the first new version since the project left incubation and became a top-level project in May 2012, though for some reason it has yet to make it to the Apache index of top level projects.
- Blender 2.67 renders cartoons
- OpenStreetMap launches new map editor
  
  The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project has announced that it will make its new map editor, which it had originally unveiled in February, available to all its contributors today. Development on the new iD editor was partly funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation and unlike the software it replaces, the new editor does not require Flash to run. The tool is written completely in HTML5 and uses the D3 visualisation library.
Public Services/Government
- NSA Asks Open Source Developers to Help Protect Agency Cloud; Keith Alexander Comments
  
  The National Security Agency has started developing a cloud computing platform intended to help secure the government’s network infrastructure, FedScoop reported Friday.
  
  David Stegon writes NSA has reached out to the country’s open source community by allowing developers to collaborate in shoring up the cloud infrastructure’s code for the cloud infrastructure.
- State offers online open source data trove (O’Malley style)
  
  The Maryland state government quietly announced its brand-new online open source data trove last Wednesday.
- Default to open data: an Executive Order
- US president issues open data order
  
  US president Barack Obama is aiming to breathe new life into US information portal data.gov. Over the last two years, the portal appears to have faltered somewhat. Under an executive order issued by the White House on Thursday, data in new government and public sector IT systems will have to be stored in “open and machine readable” formats. The requirements also apply to data processing facilities which undergo modernisation or renovation, which will also be required to make information available via the US government’s open data portal.
Openness/Sharing
- JQooBe platform helps communities manage communication
- Online house designs could slash costs
  
  International communal house-building network WikiHouse has come to Christchurch, and could be the solution for homeowners in need of an idea or wanting to kickstart their rebuild themselves.
- Open Worm Wants You to Help Build an Electronic Model of a Living Creature
- Comelec to open source code for review today
  
  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has finally agreed to open today the source code of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, which it will use for the May 13 elections, for review by political parties and other groups.
- Gittip takes ‘open source’ to new levels, finds limits
  
  Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur Chad Whitacre is approaching his online cash gift-giving startup with an earnest interpretation of being transparent.
- Open Source Advocate Invited to SEC Credit Ratings Roundtable
  
  Next Tuesday’s Securities and Exchange Commission Credit Ratings Roundtable will include open source ratings advocate, Marc Joffe. A former Senior Director at Moody’s Analytics, Joffe has been using open source technologies to evaluate sovereign and municipal bond issuers since last year. Recently, Joffe’s group, Public Sector Credit Solutions, developed a credit scoring model for California cities at the request of a unit of the State Treasurer’s Office.
- Range Networks Introduces First U.S. Open-Source Cellular Platform
  
  Range Networks is releasing a standards-based hardware-software cell network that is open source from end to end using equipment and software made in the United States.
- Open source flight, from the Drone Lab to Twitter: Q&A with Dave Lester
- Open Source Model Assigns Credit Scores to 260 California Cities
  
  A municipal credit research group has published credit scores for 260 California cities calculated with an open source credit model. The group, Public Sector Credit Solutions (PSCS), developed the model with a grant from the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) – a unit of the State Treasurer’s Office (STO). The PSCS research, which has recently been submitted for peer review, does not represent the opinion of CDIAC or STO, nor do the credit scores reflect the views of CDIAC, STO or any other public agency.
- Open Access/Content
- Open Hardware
  - Willow Garage Spinoff Is Showing Off Some Very Cool Robots
    
    Over the past several years, some of the more interesting work in the field of robotics has been driven by open source efforts, and the California-based Willow Garage made some of the biggest contributions of all. It produced a widely used robotics operating system and was the impetus for the formation of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF).
  - AMD’s open-source servers hit the market
    
    Server vendors have started shipping servers designed by the chipmaker AMD based on open-source specifications of the Open Compute Project, an open-source hardware-design community Facebook launched about two years ago.
Programming
- Your next language
  
  One of the commonly asked questions I hear is “I want to get into programming, which language should I learn?” It’s closely followed by “I write in X but I want to do something else… what language should I be looking at?” There used to be some nicely canned answers to these questions over which the merits and demerits could be discussed over coffee or beer but the culture and practice of open source has changed that. Now, I can only give one answer… “all of them”.
- Python-accelerating PyPy 2.0 for x86 released
  
  The developers of PyPy, an alternative Python 2.x implementation with a just-in-time compiler that’s “almost a drop-in replacement for CPython 2.7″, have announced the release of PyPy 2.0. According to the developers’ benchmarking site PyPy 2.0 is around 5.71 times faster than CPython 2.7.3.
- Why IBM Now Views LLVM As Being Critical Software
  
  It wasn’t until the middle of 2012 that IBM viewed LLVM as being “critical” to support but since then they have decided to fully support LLVM across all IBM server platforms. Last week in Paris at the European LLVM Meeting, one of their developers talked about the tipping point in supporting LLVM on IBM hardware and their current development status.
- PyPy 2.0 alpha for ARM
Standards/Consortia
- Google almost completes open-source VP9 codec standard
  
  Google has said this week that it is finishing defining the open-source VP9 video codec standard, with a final date of June 17th.

Leftovers

[Dvorak's tongue in cheek article] Dear Microsoft: Windows 8 Is Great

Your idea that all interfaces should be simple, to-the-point, and touchable is the way to go. To heck with convention! We are all sick of the desktop and the whole idea of a desktop. It’s not a desktop anyway—it’s a screen and there are better things to put on it than folders and icons. These are dumb and they assume we all work in offices. Or worse, it assumes we work at all.

Just look at the old-fashioned interface. Those faux shadows and cutesy icons symbolize what exactly? This is not the interface for today’s modern user. We need representation. Something that reflects the “now.” A symbol of the public—today’s public. Like some bland, square, one-dimensional tiles. Dumbed-down to an extreme. Dopey even. Tiles say it all. And you can poke at them and move them around.

Microsoft, you nailed it!
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
Cablegate
- Bitcoins, Wikileaks, 3D printers, PGP and the gov’s battle against information
  
  The U.S. government has a hard enough time parrying foreign threats like terrorist groups and hostile nations but it’s the unfettered distribution of information in the form of software that could pose the greatest threat of all.
- WikiLeaks: Indira Government charged two American under Official Secret Act
  
  WikiLeaks reveal that Indira Gandhi Government had charged two Americans under Official Secret Act. The cable says: ” Two Americans await trial in India on charges of spying and are expected to go on trial here within two months in the first case in India of Westerners. Anthony Fletcher and Richard Harcos were arrested on April 26, 1973 in Calcutta. they have been charged under the Indian Official Secret Act.” The cable also reveals that on February 19, the Home Ministry in New Delhi had issued official sanction permitting the Government of West Bengal to try Anthony Fletcher and Richard Harcos under the Official Secret Act. The trial which will be held in Calcutta has not been scheduled. The West Bengal Government has set another hearing in the case for February 27. At a preliminary hearing in Calcutta on February 13, the possibility of bail was discussed, and the decision on bail may be issued on February 27. I have instructed the Consul General in Calcutta to keep you and the Deraprtment of State informed on the progress of this case. I assume your Office will inform Mrs. Fletcher of the forgoing and I am writing separately to her in response to her letter to me of February 12.”
- WikiLeaks Sees Credit Card Donations Return After Court Ruling
  
  Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks can again accept credit card donations today after Valitor hf, the Icelandic partner of MasterCard Inc. (MA) and Visa Europe Ltd., began processing payments after losing a court case.
  
  Valitor was ordered by Iceland’s Supreme Court on April 24 to begin processing WikiLeaks payments within 15 days or face daily fines amounting to 800,000 kronur ($6,800), according to the ruling. The company was sued by WikiLeaks’s payment services provider, Reykjavik, Iceland-based DataCell, which has also lodged complaints against Visa and MasterCard with the European Commission.
Finance
- Obama, Cameron Promote Trade Deal Granting Corporations Political Power
  
  President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday pledged to pursue a broad trade agreement between the U.S. and European Union, amid growing domestic unrest with the Obama administration’s plans to include new political powers for corporations in the deal.
  
  Negotiations have not formally begun, but a series of meetings between U.S. and EU officials have established some ground rules and the preliminary scope of the talks. Since tariffs are already low or nonexistent, the agreement will focus on regulatory issues. That emphasis has concerned food safety advocates, environmental activists and public health experts, who fear a deal may roll back important standards.
- Nohmul Pyramid Bulldozed In Belize For Rocks
  
  A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize’s largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, authorities announced on Monday.
  
  [...]
  
  “It’s a feeling of incredible disbelief because of the ignorance and the insensitivity … they were using this for road fill,” Awe said. “It’s like being punched in the stomach, it’s just so horrendous.”
- ‘WikiLeaks of financial data’ prompts worldwide hunt for tax evaders
  
  A cache of data amounting to a whopping 400 gigabytes of information leaked by bank insiders has triggered an offshore tax evasion investigation across the United States, the UK and Australia.
Privacy
- NSA releases guide for internet users
  
  The National Security Agency ( NSA) has released a guide to ‘help you understand how to use the internet more efficiently’.
  
  The guide to ‘Internet Research’ is a ‘how-to’ book for its agents looking to get the most out of Google, Yahoo and other web search tools.
- Interesting job moves: From NSA’s ‘tailored access’ office to PACOM intel
  
  In this case, I don’t know Rear Adm. Metts, but I sure found the move of this information warfare specialist interesting. Maybe the U.S. government is going to respond more actively to the stream of Chinese intrusions into American government and business computers:
- NSA Internet Spying Guide Made Public
  
  The document, however, was labeled as “unclassified” (but for official use only), so the really juicy secrets and Internet tricks are probably still filed away. There’s also a stamp on the guide that says the opinions in the guide “do not represent the official opinion of [the] NSA.”
- HOWTO search the Web like the NSA
- The NSA’s Weird Internal Guide To Finding Information On The Internet
- The Secret NSA Search Tips That Will Make You a Spy
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - Copyright in France: Wishful Thinking and Real Dangers
    
    Pierre Lescure has handed in his report [fr] on culture at the digital era to French President François Hollande1. La Quadrature du Net denounces a flawed political process revealing the harmful influence of industrial groups at all levels of policy-making. How will the French government react to Lescure’s proposal to expand the scope of competence of the audiovisual media regulator (CSA) to the Internet? Will it to pursue former President Sarkozy’s anti-sharing policies and even supplement them with new ACTA-like measures encouraging online intermediaries to become private copyright police?

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/14/android-growth-explosion/feed/ 0 Links 12/12/2012: Linux 3.7 is Out, OpenMandriva http://techrights.org/2012/12/12/openmandriva/ http://techrights.org/2012/12/12/openmandriva/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:55:47 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=65117

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

For Shaadi.com, Ubuntu Scores Over Windows

For all CTOs and IT managers, bringing costs down and deploying easy-to-use technology is the biggest challenge. Shaadi.com has addressed this issue by relying on the open source model. Over a year, more than 50 per cent of the users in the company have migrated to Ubuntu from proprietary software.
Consequences of Dell Embracing Ubuntu

Desktop Linux for brand new computers has come a long way. Not too many years ago, consumers had fairly limited options in this space, but today we have more options than I could have ever imagined.

One company offering desktop Linux on new systems is Dell. After seeing mixed success with its first line of Ubuntu PCs, Dell dumped Ubuntu almost entirely. But now Ubuntu is back with Dell’s new ultrabook offering.
New PlayStation PSN Web Store blocks Linux computers

Sony again snubs Linux users with a PS3 by refusing access to the new SEN Web Store, with a generic error message giving no rhyme or reason
Top 5 Linux Predictions for 2013

Linux has grown its dominance on the list of the world’s fastest and most powerful supercomputers, now owning the top 10 positions and 93.8 percent of the OS share among the Top500 systems. That’s up from 91 percent two years ago. Based on the technology behind these top systems, there does not seem to be any slowing for Linux, certainly not in 2013.
GNU/Linux Desktop Predictions for 2013
Top Linux Trends 2012-2013
A Linux USB Loader with EFI Support [Mac Only]

SevenBits has written a new Mac Linux USB Loader tool that allows you to take an ISO of a Linux distribution and make it boot using EFI on Mac.
Server
- Fujitsu Selects Wind River Portfolio for RAID Next-Generation Disk Storage System
Kernel Space
- Linux 3.7
- Linux 3.7 arrives
- Linux Works Towards True CPU Hotplug Support
- An Overview Of The Linux 3.7 Kernel
  
  With the release of the Linux 3.7 kernel being imminent (it might even be out today), here’s an overview of the features and highlights of this 2012 holiday release of the Linux kernel.
- What’s new in Linux 3.7
  
  Linux 3.7 has more robust Intel and NVIDIA graphics drivers, support for ARM64, can handle NAT for IPv6 and has better Btrfs performance. These are just some of the enhancements in the latest version of the Linux kernel.
- Linux 3.7 arrives, ARM developers rejoice
  
  Only months after the arrival of Linux 3.6, Linus Torvalds has released the next major Linux kernel update: 3.7. The time between releases wasn’t long, but this new version includes major improvements for ARM developers and network administrators. The 3.7 source code is now available for downloading.
  
  Programmers for ARM, the popular smartphone and tablet chip family, will be especially pleased with this release. ARM had been a problem child architecture for Linux. As Torvalds said in 2011, “Gaah. Guys, this whole ARM thing is a f**king pain in the ass.” Torvalds continued, “You need to stop stepping on each others toes. There is no way that your changes to those crazy clock-data files should constantly result in those annoying conflicts, just because different people in different ARM trees do some masturbatory renaming of some random device. Seriously.”
- Linux Kernel 3.6.10 Is Available for Download
- Freescale and others join Linux Foundation
  
  The Linux Foundation has announced five new members today including embedded processor maker Freescale. Freescale say that the Linux Foundation hosts important embedded work such as the Yocto Project and collaboration with OpenEmbedded, so its membership and an increase in contributions to the ecosystem is a natural move. Consultancy Amarula Solutions has also joined, bringing its “extensive experience in mainlining patches, drivers and machine-layer code in the Linux kernel” to the group, and is looking to collaborate more widely.
- New Linux Foundation Members involved with Telecoms
  
  The Linux Foundation has announced that new members have joined the foundation, which include Telecom and Web Storage firms
- New Members Join Linux Foundation, Prioritize Linux Investments for 2013
  
  The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Amarula Solutions, Freescale, SIM Technology Group, Superb Internet and Symphony Teleca are joining the organization.
  
  Linux has emerged as the dominant operating system in a variety of markets over the last decade. It has seen major advancements this year in its role for embedded development and cloud computing. An accelerated pace of development to support these areas is expected for 2013. The Linux Foundation’s newest members are joining the organization now to maximize their investments in Linux for these areas as they prepare for the New Year.
- There’s Another Linux Kernel Power Problem
  
  After last year discovering a major Linux kernel power regression that was widely debated until the Phoronix test automation software bisected the problem to get to the bottom of the situation, there’s more active power regressions today on the Linux desktop. As I’ve mentioned on Twitter and in other articles in weeks prior there’s a few regressions, but one of them for at least some notebooks is causing a very significant increase in power consumption. This situation that remains unresolved as of the Linux 3.7 kernel can cause the system to be going through about 20% more power.
- Graphics Stack
  - AMD Releases New Radeon Code: A-Sync DMA Engines
    
    A second update to the Radeon DRM driver has been released that will be pulled into the Linux 3.8 kernel. This second Direct Render Manager update for the Radeon kernel driver provides new code from AMD that was kept internally for months but is now permitted for open-sourcing.
Applications
Desktop Environments
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Time to refresh some air
  - Glow with the power of Awesome
    
    That reminded me of the fact I forgot to blog about the new version of Slim Glow that will be in 4.10.
    
    The most noticeable change is that the system tray icons, share-like-connect icons, and others are now based on the awesome Font Awesome by Dave Gandy (http://fortawesome.github.com/Font-Awesome)
  - KDE Welcomes Trojitá, Offers Multiple E-Mail Clients
Distributions
- Manjaro Linux Review – Linux Distro Reviews
- Bridge Linux 2012.12 Review: Arch Linux a bit simplified
  
  I haven’t tried out Arch Linux yet but I plan to do so next year. Mostly my experience is concentrated on Ubuntu, Fedora and their derivatives. Now with every passing release all these distributions are getting heavier and resource consuming. Puppy is a definite saving grace, no doubt. But, as an user I want to create my own lightweight all purpose operating system using Arch. Further, the rolling release of Arch is a definite advantage, once you set your system, you don’t need to re-install every alternate year.
- ZevenOS 5.0 Review: Is it better than Xubuntu 12.10?
  
  With Ubuntu 12.10 out, Ubuntu derivatives are releasing their final version as well. ZevenOS and OS4 are couple of such distros, both provide a cocktailed version of Xubuntu with some added benefits, of course. In this review I’ll provide insights of ZevenOS and in my next review will take on OS4. They offer more or less similar proposition and could have reviewed them together as well.
- OS4 OpenDesktop 13.1 Review: What’s the difference with ZevenOS?
  
  It is kind of a peculiar feeling to use Linux distros who look and feel very similar. I am talking of ZevenOS 5.0 and OS4 OpenDesktop 13.1. Both got released in 5 days apart and have striking similarities, at least at a high level. Same Xubuntu fork with a BeOS theme, it is difficult to distinguish them from each other.
- New Design for Slax.org, Preparing Final Release
  
  Just in time for the expected final release of Slax 7.0 on Monday after all this time the web site has had a makeover as well to serve as a visual reminder that a new age for Slax has truly arrived. This is the first release using KDE 4, and possibly Blackbox as low resource alternative, and also the first one since a sponsor was secured. Slax 7.0 will be available to order on 16 GB USB flash drive for $25.-, and there are now localized versions in the download section. There’s a new page with all relevant documentation to get you up and running, and the developer has moved his personal blog over.
- ROSA Desktop 2012 preview
  
  The first and last Release Candidate of ROSA Desktop 2012 was announced last week. This means, of course, that the stable edition will be hitting a download mirror near you very soon, likely before Xmas. ROSA Desktop, an end-user edition, is published by ROSA Laboratory, a Linux solutions provider based in Moscow, Russia, which also publishes ROSA Desktop Enterprise.
  
  In real terms, the difference between ROSA Desktop and ROSA Desktop Enterprise is that the former will ship and always have the latest and greatest editions of the Linux kernel and software, bleeding edge, if you like, while the later will ship with Debian-style stable versions of applications and the Linux kernel.
- DragonFlyBSD, CentOS, Ubuntu, Solaris Benchmarks
- New Releases
- PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
  - OpenMandriva: It’s Almost a Done Deal
    
    Today Charles-H. Schulz blogged to share that “the statutes of the “OpenMandriva Association” have been sent to the French authorities and the incorporation process has thus started.” Schulz admits originally being skeptical that Mandriva would ever be truly open, that was until he spoke personally with Mandriva SA CEO Jean-Manuel Croset.
    
    Schulz continued by saying that the transition to the new community directed project and migrating all the infrastructure is “somewhere around 80%” complete and that none of it would have been possible without the commitment from Jean-Manuel Croset. He said, “It is not everyday you see an example of a community who gains its independence with the blessing and dedication of its former steward.”
  - OpenMandriva becoming fully independent
  - The December 2012 Issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst Opens Up
    
    Jim Whitehurst, the President and CEO of Red Hat has had an interesting career to date. He was a consultant for a number of years, joined Delta Air Lines right around September 11, 2001, and played a big role in securing the future of that company as its Chief Operating Officer, and now is the President and CEO of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s first billion dollar open source company. Whitehurst and I recently spoke as part of my Forum on World Class IT podcast series, and hearing him compare his time at Delta to his current role at Red Hat struck me as an interesting case example in how older generation businesses and newer technology firms differ in terms of culture, hierarchy, collaboration, and the like.
  - Red Hat’s New OpenShift Enterprise looks to make PaaS an On-Premise Solution
    
    Red Hat, world leaders in open source solutions to provide high-performing cloud, virtualisation, storage, Linux® and middleware technologies, have launched OpenShift Enterprise, their new product designed specifically for installation as an on-premise solution within private, public and hybrid cloud data centre.
  - Red Hat Speeds Up Open Source Virtualization Race
  - Fedora
    - Bye bye, Miracle Beefy, Welcome Spherical Cow
      
      Every new Fedora release, is a good time to test and see new features, normally I start testing on Alfa, but now after installing it on a test machine did not have to much time to play with it.
      
      Another thing that change on my test is was I installed instead of using preupgrade, the main reason, Fedora 18 has a new installer so I wanted to see how good it was.
    - The Future Of Fedora Gets Debated, Again
      
      Being hotly discussed this weekend within the Fedora development camp is in regards to the future direction of the Linux distribution.
      
      Tomas Radej, a developer at Red Hat issuing a statement from the position of a Fedora contributor/community member rather than his employer, volleyed a long message on the Fedora devel list about “where are we going?”
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 295
      - Ubuntu One ‘Referral Space’ Goes AWOL
      - Coming in Ubuntu Linux 13.04: instant purchases from the desktop
      - Desktop Zoom, Animations in Ubuntu 12.04/12.10 Makes it Look Flashier, More Functional
      - Meet Ubuntu Linux 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’: Pictures
      - Canonical will turn Ubuntu 13.04 into an Amazon shopping trolley
        
        SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Canonical is set to anger its longstanding users once again by saying that Ubuntu 13.04 will offer users the opportunity to shop at Amazon from their desktop.
        
        Canonical has done a very good job of alienating large parts of its user base in the past two years through its decision to push the Unity window manager and then foisting an opt-out system on them in which local system search terms are sent to Amazon. Now the firm has said it will offer users the chance to buy products from Amazon directly from the control panel on the Unity desktop, which is called the Dash.
      - Ubuntu 13.04 To Allow Purchases From the Dash
      - Shuttleworth: Ubuntu’s goal is one OS from phones to supercomputers
      - Canonical founder hopes Ubuntu on mobile devices will lure more desktop users
      - Kicking Off The Ubuntu Advocacy Developer Kit
        
        This content would make it easier for advocates to get going, instead of navigating the wealth of unorganized content on the wiki and variety of promotional materials. The ADK provides a set of curated content that gets someone up and running quickly.
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Elementary OS Luna Review
        
        I remember those days when the name elementary used to refer themes, now we are looking at a review of a distribution developed by the same team. I must note that this is the review of the beta release of elementary OS Luna. Any minor annoyances or rough edges will probably be fixed before the final release. That said, I have no idea when the final release of Luna will be available.
        
        Linux Mint 14 OEM Has Been Released
        
        Clement Lefebvre proudly announced a minutes ago, December 10, the immediate availability for download of the OEM installation images of the recently released Linux Mint 14 operating system.
        
        Linux Mint 14 OEM released!
        
        Review: Linux Mint 14.1 “Nadia” MATE + GNOME 3/Cinnamon
        
        Wow. It’s been a really long time since I’ve had the time to sit down and do a review like this. The reason for that is because this semester has been incredibly busy in pretty much every way, and today was finally the last day to turn in problem sets and other assignments. Now, I can finally do this review.
        
        Elementary OS 0.2 Luna Beta 1 Review
Devices/Embedded
- Raspberry Pi for Schools – The Free Software Column with Richard Hillesley
  
  The Raspberry Pi can be the affordable route to teaching schoolchildren the lost idea that computer programming can be fun
- 4 things I have learned since I was given a Raspberry PI
- Phones
  - Can HP’s webOS Rise from the Ashes?
    
    Forget Android and iOS—a team of enthusiasts plans to bring HP’s much-admired webOS back from the scrap heap.
  - Android
    - Android Candy: Never Plug In Your Phone Again!
      
      Last month, I showed you an awesome audiobook player app for Android, but I didn’t share my frustration in getting the audio files on to my phone. When I plugged my phone in to the computer, I couldn’t get the SD card to mount, no matter what settings I changed. It was very frustrating and forced me to come up with a better way. Enter: FolderSync.
    - LG Working On Optimus G2 with 5.5″ Full HD Display?
      
      The year 2012 has not been a good year for android manufacturers, with an exception of Samsung which hit success with high volume sales. While Samsung captued the largest smartphone market share, other manufactures failed to report profits.
      
      Surprisingly LG is on the path of turning things around. Everything changed for the South Korean company after the significant success of LG Optimus G and then the runaway hit of LG manufactured Google Flagship device Nexus 4, which still has a huge backorder.
    - Samsung Galaxy Camera gets an open-source bootloader
      
      There is certainly no shortage of dedicated devs and modders working on hacking Android-powered devices to make them more useful and customizable.
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Allwinner introduces dual and quad-core tablets
    
    The Allwinner A10 single-core chip has been a relatively popular chip with Chinese device makers due to its low price and decent performance.
    
    That’s the processor that powers the original MK802 Android 4.0 Mini PC and a number of other mini PCs. It’s proven popular with tinkerers, because Android isn’t the only supported operating system. Users have been installing Ubuntu and other Linux-based software on Allwinner A10 devices for months, and the PengPod line of tablets are expected to ship soon with a desktop Linux operating system preloaded.
  - 9 Android Tablet for Kids these Holidays
    
    That’s not to say LeapPad or similar tablets are any lesser in quality but Android tablets you get more flexibility and choice. Additionally, if you are doubtful if your toddler is big enough to handle a tablet or benefit from it completely you can get a cheap one and try it! Now let’s move on to the top nine Android based children tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

Open Source into 2013; 10 Predictions
Revamping the first open source groupware solution

Many heroes will remain unsung because there is no-one to tell their story. I first came across this story over eight years ago, and three years ago it became connected with my own. The hero in our story is an unlikely candidate for heroism: a public sector body in Germany, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
Samba Team Releases Samba 4.0 – 1st Free Software Active Directory Compatible Server

Do you remember when the Samba team won against Microsoft before the EU Commission, and they won the right to buy the documentation and use it like this? This result is part of that story, as the work was created using the official protocol documentation published by Microsoft. But times have changed, and Microsoft helped make this happen. That means it’s legal. So go ahead and use it. They even got a nice quotation from Microsoft for the press release.

Samba is one of 11 open source projects that leading software integrity vendor Coverity has certified as “secure” and has reached Coverity “Integrity Rung 2″ certification. What I like the best about the Samba team is that it’s proven to be a no-sellout zone. “If you want to become a member of the team then the first thing you should do is join the samba-technical mailing list and start contributing to the development of Samba,” it says on the site.

This is FOSS history, so it belongs right here in our archives. I lived that whole Samba-Microsoft saga, and it feels so right to see it bear such fruit. It’s what courts are for, and it’s why I am very grateful to the EU Commission, the Samba guys for not wimping out when everyone else did, and to the lawyers, especially Carlo Piana, for making it happen.
DSD releases resilient open source forensics tool

Security boffins within the Defence Signals Directorate have released an open source forensics tool that improves the process of “carving out” target data stored within other file formats.
Defence researchers create open source forensics tool
Open Source Software Used by Majority of Developers, Survey Reveals

The term “open source” was tossed around like any other tech buzzword some time ago. Many predicted the philosophy’s eventual demise or, at best, relegation to hobbyists. Few expected open source software to take hold in the enterprise, citing security concerns and lack of technical support beyond the community of developers itself. Now, however, open source has graduated from idealist’s dream to a ubiquitous presence in the toolkit of most software developers.
Ten to the dozen: number of developers using open source
The secret ingredient in open source
GraphBuilder is open sourced
Events
- OpenStack India Event
- Digit at Foss.in – India’s largest free and open source conference
  
  About a week ago, Foss.in, India’s largest free and open source conference completed another successful year in the running. If you weren’t there at the event, then read our day-by-day round up of the proceedings to catch-up.
- Inspirations from FOSS.in 2012
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Google Accidentally Transmits Self-Destruct Code to Army of Chrome Browsers
    
    The problems were short-lived, but widespread. Over at Hacker News — a news discussion site that tends to attract Silicon Valley’s most knowledgeable software developers — a long thread quickly filled up with dozens of crash reports. “My Chrome has been crashing every ten minutes for the last half hour,” wrote one poster.
    
    This may be a first. Bad webpage coding can often cause a browser to crash, but yesterday’s crash looks like something different: widespread crashing kicked off by a web service designed to help drive your browser.
    
    Think of it as the flip side of cloud computing. Google’s pitch has always been that its servers are easier to use and less error-prone than buggy desktop software. But the Sync problem shows that when Google goes down, it can not only keep you from getting your e-mail — it can knock desktop software such as a browser offline too.
  - Google Chrome May Be Set for Next-Gen Features in Working with Displays, TVs
    
    Next-generation browsers may be built to connect with external displays and devices in brand new ways, and there are signs that the Google Chrome team may lead some of these efforts. According to a new set of posts, Chrome may take on new protocols and an API for communicating with “first screen devices,” and more. Here are the details.
SaaS
- This CEO Is Creating The Next Billion Dollar Open Source Company
  
  As part, of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series, Eucalyptus Systems’ CEO, Marten Mickos shared his advice regarding what it takes to be a serially successful entrepreneur.
- In-Q-Tel an Investor in Big Data Open Source Provider Cloudera
  
  In-Q-Tel is investing in big data firm Cloudera as part of that company’s newest venture capital round, All Things D reports.
  
  Cloudera raised $65 million in its latest round from IQT, Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, Ignition Partners and Meritech Capital Partners.
- Is Cloud Computing Killing Open Source Software
  
  The best thing about open source software systems has always been the fact that it is freely available and any programmer or company can use it to develop its own version of that software. For the longest time they have been the best solution for people willing to go outside the box in order to get the best results in their respective IT departments. Of course these systems have never been without profit and it came from two sources that are now getting to be absolute because of the emergence of cloud computing and the level of affordability most of its components come from.
Databases
- What Is INDECT, And Why Is It Bad For The American People?
- Proposal to Allow Police Internet Monitoring Shot Down in UK Parliament
- The Police State Advances Daily: Warrantless, Sophisticated Audio Surveillance On Buses
- Big Brother’s Listening
- Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
- No Warrant, No Problem: How The Government Can Still Get Your Digital Data
  
  Listening to your phone calls without a judge’s warrant is illegal if you’re a U.S. citizen. But police don’t need a warrant — which requires showing “probable cause” of a crime — to get just the numbers you called and when you called them, as well as incoming calls, from phone carriers. Instead, police can get courts to sign off on a subpoena, which only requires that the data they’re after is relevant to an investigation — a lesser standard of evidence.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- Help improve LibreOffice 4.0 in a ‘test marathon’ this month
  
  If you’ve ever used free and open source software for any length of time, you’re probably already aware that much of the work done to develop, test, and maintain that software is accomplished by what’s typically a global community of developers and volunteers.
CMS
- Acquia flies flag for Drupal downunder
  
  Acquia has set its sights on accelerating adoption of the open source Drupal content management system by large organisations. The company, which was founded by the CMS’s creator, Dries Buytaert, opened a Sydney office last month and plans on expanding its sales and business development operations in Australia.
  
  Australia is already home to elements of Acquia’s tri-continental 24/7 support setup, and the company’s Asia Pacific regional director, Chris Harrop, said he plans to boost the company’s local headcount to about 15 over the next 12 months, bringing on board field sales and business development staff in Sydney.
- Senator Lundy to be DrupalCon Sydney headliner
- WordPress Reaches 3.5, Rides The Coltrane
Healthcare
- Why You Need Open Source for Health Exchange Success
  
  With the national election over there’s an expectation for greater bipartisanship between Republicans and Democrats, but in terms of programs with potential for cooperation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one of the least likely. The ACA has been a significant point of contention between the parties, and despite the President’s reelection and therefore, the mandate to pursue ACA, it seems the conflict may continue, particularly around implementing a Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) website portal in each state. Luckily, open source may be the answer to overcoming some of the conflict.
BSD
- The Grinch That Delayed FreeBSD 9.1
  
  Originally the plan for FreeBSD 9.1 was to release it in mid-September, but the first release candidate was one month late along with the RC2 and RC3 releases. The plan was then updated to release FreeBSD 9.1 at the end of October, but that too passed. The latest schedule set the RELEASE announcement as going out on 12 November, but that clearly didn’t work either.
  
  It’s been more than one month since the last test release (FreeBSD 9.1-RC3) and there’s still no sign of an imminent release. Asked on the mailing list this weekend was Will we get a RELEASE-9.1 for Christmas? There’s FreeBSD stakeholders delaying new server rollouts until the FreeBSD 9.1 availability, but there’s been no clear communication from FreeBSD developers when the release will happen.
- FreeBSD veteran confident of reaching fund-raising goal
  
  Veteran BSD hacker Marshall Kirk McKusick has played down fears that the FreeBSD project will fall short of its target of raising $US500,000 through donations for this year.
- FreeBSD end-of-year fund raiser on target
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Free Software Leader Richard Stallman: Amazon Search Integration In Ubuntu Amounts To Spyware
  
  Free software leader Richard Stallman claims Ubuntu amounts to spyware with Amazon search integrated into the “dash” of its Unity interface. He is calling for developers to shun the open-source operating system.
- Ubuntu Community Manager apologises to Stallman
  
  Canonical has yet to make an official statement…
- Sorry RMS Says Jono Bacon
  
  On the issue that Stallamn raised Jono Bacon still maintains a view “that referring to the Ubuntu dash as malicious software that collects information about users without their knowledge (spyware) and as a result that Ubuntu should be shunned for “spying”, somewhat over-sensationalizes the issue”.
  
  It is good in part of Jono Bacon to come up with a apology but the post does not deal with concers that Stallman initially raised regarding user privacy. This post could mean that those question could remain unanswered.
- Linux Top 3:Ubuntu Roaring, RMS Not Impressed
- Ubuntu Community Manager apologises to Stallman
  
  Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon has apologised to Richard Stallman for calling Stallman’s position on Ubuntu “childish”. Last week, Richard Stallman wrote an article describing Ubuntu 12.10′s Amazon Shopping Lens as spyware. In “Ubuntu Spyware: What to do”, Stallman said that the sending of search terms being entered into the desktop by users on to Canonical’s servers, where they are then searched for on Amazon, is simple surveillance and without the users’ consent. Even though the Amazon searching can be turned off, “the existence of that switch does not make the surveillance feature ok” because its default state is on, he says. Stallman called on the free software community to “remove Ubuntu from the distros you recommend” and said that “it behooves us to give Canonical whatever rebuff is needed to make it stop this”.
- [Mono booster/GNU hater:] Morals? Forbidding stuff?
  
  It isn’t freedom to have to choose for Richard Stallman’s world view. It isn’t ‘freedom’ to be called immoral just because you choose another ethic. It isn’t freedom when a single person or group with a single view on morality tries to forbid you something based on just their point of view.
  
  For example, Stallman has repeatedly said about Trusted Computing (which he in a childish way apparently calls Treacherous Computing) that it ‘should be illegal’ (that’s a quote from official FSF and GNU pages). I also recall Stallman trying to forbid blog posts about proprietary software (it was about VMWare) on planet-gnome (original thread here).
Project Releases
- Blender 2.65 Out, Brings New Features
  
  Popular video editing and 3d animation software Blender has recieved a new update.
- Suricata 1.3.5 Available!
- Smoke brings fire to Blender 2.65
Public Services/Government
- White House Steps Up Open Source Activities
  
  Web developers in the White House also collaborate with the open source community on Github, offering White House mobile apps. The White House website offers a page for developers interested in using their open source tools at whitehouse.gov/developers. Developers can also track the White House’s open source activity through the White House’s Github profile.
- Swiss City Mandates Use Of Open Source, Banishes Microsoft Officially
  
  In an overwhelming majority vote, the city council in Bern, Switzerland has moved to implement all future infrastructure with open source technologies. The “Party Motion”, as it is called in Switzerland, was submitted over a year ago, and has finally been realized. Plans to move forward with open source design, strategy and implementation should begin immediately.
Openness/Sharing
- Open Hardware
  - RuuviTracker: Open Source GPS tracking system
    
    The new project aims to develop a new GSM/GPS-enabled tracking system for a wide variety of uses. On the hardware side, the project aims to develop an affordable, water-proof, robust, high-quality and state-of-the-art device, capable of operating in temperatures as low as -40C.
  - Arduino launches Esplora open source controller
    
    Tinkerers take note, because Arduino has launched its new Esplora controller, which just so happens to be customizable and open source. The Esplora is derived from the Arduino Leonardo, but unlike its predecessors, it comes equipped with a number of sensors and buttons out of the box. That means it should be at least relatively easy to just jump in once your Esplora arrives.
  - Burrito Bomber: open source hardware-based drone autonomously delivers Mexican food
  - Making it real with 3D printing
    
    With a 3D printer that costs less than $3,000, you can start your own mini manufacturing operation — and use open source software to create surprisingly complex designs
Programming
- Python creator Guido van Rossum joins Dropbox
  
  Dropbox has announced that Python creator Guido van Rossum will be joining the company. According to a tweet by van Rossum, he has already quit his job at Google and will be starting at the company behind the popular synchronisation software in January. Van Rossum says he is “leaving Google as the best of friends” in a later tweet, where he shared a link to his redecorated office.

Leftovers

IOS 6 Wi-Fi problems keep hanging on
Security
- 25-GPU cluster cracks every standard Windows password in [less than] 6 hours
  
  A password-cracking expert has unveiled a computer cluster that can cycle through as many as 350 billion guesses per second. It’s an almost unprecedented speed that can try every possible Windows passcode in the typical enterprise in less than six hours.
Defence/Police/Aggression
- Assange looks to contest Senate election
  
  WIKILEAKS publisher Julian Assange has confirmed his intention to run as a Senate candidate in the 2013 federal election and will announce the formation of a WikiLeaks political party early next year.
- People Who Edited Al Qaeda Out of CIA Benghazi Talking Points Predict Islamic Terrorism Will End By 2030, Warn of Christian Terrorists
- United States: The NSA And Cybersecurity
  
  NSA also has an interest in being able to compromise the software running on servers and end-user devices at the “edges”…
- Indefinite Detention and the NDAA: The rise of America’s imperial presidency
- The NDAA and Cybersecurity
- George Will on Drones, Assassination, and Targeted Killing
  
  Is “targeted killing” just a polite, antiseptic phrase for assassination?
- Understanding the NDAA, a US law that makes it possible to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial
- Britain to probe use of spy drones by untrained pilots
- Leaked probe exposes drone war ‘chaos’
- UK Minister covers up drone operations
- California law enforcement moves to buy drones, draws controversy
- US detains Afghan teenagers: UN
- ‘NYT’ Public Editor Again Hits Paper Over Coverage of Bradley Manning Hearing
  
  If any news outlet should feel a responsibility to cover the ongoing hearing in the case of Bradley Manning, accused of leaking countless US government and military documents (and an infamous video) via WikiLeaks to the worldwide media—it would seem to be The New York Times.
- REPORT: The US Is Openly Sending Heavy Weapons From Libya To Syrian Rebels
  
  The Obama administration has decided to launch a covert operation to send heavy weapons to Syrian rebels, Christina Lamb of The Sunday Times of London reports.
  Diplomatic sources told the Sunday Times that the U.S. “bought weapons from the stockpiles of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.”
- Did CIA and State Department Run Illegal Arms Trafficking in Benghazi?
  
  New details have emerged that shed light on the chaos that embroiled the Benghazi mission on 9/11/2012 that led to the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans at the hands of the very anti-Qaddafi rebels that Stevens formally liaised with for the CIA.
  
  It wasn’t a secret that Ambassador Christopher Stevens played a key role in Libya’s “Arab Spring.” During the course of the revolution that ultimately toppled Muammar Qaddafi, Stevens’ built a relationship with the Libyan rebels and it’s this experience that made him the frontrunner for the Libyan ambassadorship. Stevens’ history of working with Libyan radicals provided the perfect opportunity for the Obama administration to covertly move newly purchased weapons from Libya’s freedom fighters to Syrian insurgents via ships through Turkey.
- Moral issue: are drones worse than torture?
- Review: ‘The Secret Drone War’
  
  This is a long overdue documentary, in half an hour, the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ team ventures into the hinterland of American drone strikes, and puts a human face to this so-called war.
- Homeland’s Anti-Drone Message Hits Obama at Home
  
  However Homeland ends its amazing second season next week, I’m already anticipating its real-life cliffhanger: How does President Obama react to Brody assassinating the vice president for killing scores of children by drone?
- The threat of drones ushering in ‘invisible wars’
- US drones killing civilians in Afghanistan
- The ethics of American drone strikes
- Rachel Marsden: When terrorists ‘killed’ in drone strikes aren’t really dead
  
  Is “killed by a drone strike” the new “alive and well”? If you pay close enough attention, it makes you wonder what’s really going on.
- Drones propel hate in Pakistan for the U.S.
  
  Israel’s use of military force is scrutinized, while the U.S.’s use of armed drones in Pakistan barely registers. But these drones and their civilian casualties are strengthening Pakistani and Taliban extreme Islamism and anti-Americanism – this international footprint is how the U.S. is being judged.
- Student Tweets Entire History of US Drone Strikes
- Obama May Need The NDAA To Justify Widespread Use Of Drones
  
  We’ve covered how President Obama needs the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to justify detention powers he has used for the past four years, but there’s another reason he needs it: drones.
  At the heart of both issues is the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which gives the president authority “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those … [who] aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 or harbored such organizations or persons.”
- Exclusive: UK military in talks to help Syria rebels
- New York Times Bradley Manning Coverage Continues To Be Criticized
- Key Details on Bradley Manning’s Confinement Were Kept from Army Commander Who Visited Regularly
  
  A company commander in Pfc. Bradley Manning’s Army chain of command, who made multiple visits to see Manning while he was imprisoned at Quantico Marine Brig, took the stand as a government witness today to provide testimony on Manning’s treatment. He did not initially appear to have any notion that Manning was mistreated while he was held there, but in the final moments of his testimony he indicated he did not agree with some of the decisions. He also had not been informed of the fact that mental health officers were recommending Manning be taken off prevention of injury (POI) status. And when he finished testifying, he stood up and walked over to shake Manning’s hand.
- Latif Letter About Guantanamo Speaks From the Grave: “I Am Being Pushed Toward Death Every Moment”
  
  On September 8, Latif was found “motionless and unresponsive” by guards in a cell in the very same Camp 5 cellblock he had cited in his letter. Two months later, the military produced a report that said he committed suicide.
  
  The mystery surrounding the death of the eldest son of a Yemeni merchant who, by all accounts, did not belong at the offshore prison for suspected terrorists, is underscored by the almost prophetic nature of this singular letter.
- Bradley Manning: a tale of liberty lost in America
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Germany’s Wind Power Revolution in the Doldrums
  
  The construction of offshore wind parks in the North Sea has hit a snag with a vital link to the onshore power grid hopelessly behind schedule. The delays have some reconsidering the ability of wind power to propel Germany into the post-nuclear era.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- ALEC’s So-Called “Right to Work” Bill as Political Revenge in Michigan
  
  As concerned workers come together across Michigan in protest, partisan politicians are poised to make one of the strongholds for America’s blue-collar worker rights into a so-called “Right to Work” (RTW) state — in accordance with the ALEC blueprint to change to state laws at the behest of some of the biggest corporations in the world. Yet, 42 corporations, including General Motors, have distanced themselves from ALEC this year after ALEC’s role in controversial and divisive legislation was exposed.
- Michigan Passes “Right to Work” Containing Verbatim Language from ALEC Model Bill
Privacy
- You’re not anonymous. I know your name, email, and company.
- Public Buses That Listen To Passengers’ Conversations Have Been Around For Five Years
  
  The Daily had an interesting report this week — picked up by Wired — about “government officials quietly installing sophisticated audio surveillance systems on public buses across the country to eavesdrop on passengers.” I know what you’re thinking: “Woo! More epic bus fight scenes that come with audio.”
- WikiLeaks editor denounces mass internet surveillance and US attacks on democratic rights
  
  “The Internet,” Assange declares in the introduction, “has led to revolutions across the world but a crackdown is now in full swing. As whole societies move online, mass surveillance programs are being deployed globally. Our civilization has reached a crossroads.”
  In line with the Obama administration’s campaign against WikiLeaks, most of the mainstream media has largely ignored the book. Others, such as the American television network CNN, have brushed aside the book’s themes while claiming that Assange’s principled defence of press freedom is hypocritical. CNN journalist Erin Burnett, who hosts the network’s prime time nightly news program—“Erin Burnett: OutFront”—attempted this approach in late November.
- Facebook privacy poll closes (turns out you didn’t care about privacy)
- CIA’s venture arm backs mobile banking, NFC developer
  
  In-Q-Tel, the technology investment arm of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), will invest in Tyfone, a small developer of mobile banking, identity management and near-field communication systems.
  
  The size of the investment was not disclosed.
- Once Again With Feeling: You Have Absolutely No Privacy Online
Civil Rights
- Not so noble: EU’s Peace Prize win sparks debate over legitimacy
- Congratulations. Tell No One.
  
  An inspiration for the hero of Zero Dark Thirty, a CIA agent who was celebrated with a prestigious award for helping to track down Osama Bin Laden, seemingly has had a less glorious career in the mission’s aftermath, according to the Washington Post. A former CIA official says she bashed her fellow honorees over email, essentially telling them, “You guys tried to obstruct me. You fought me. Only I deserve the award.” How does the CIA give awards to secret agents?
- Senate kills Pentagon’s ‘alternative CIA’
- Judge Mulls Whether to Keep Alive Former CIA Officer’s Suit
  
  A former covert CIA officer who claims the agency disseminated false information about him, thwarting an employment opportunity with a defense contractor, could get a chance to further probe his allegations.
  
  A federal trial judge in Washington said at a recent hearing in the case that he was inclined to allow the officer—identified in court papers only as “Peter B.”—the opportunity to conduct limited discovery in his lawsuit.
- San Francisco District Attorney subpoenas Twitter feeds in Columbus Day riot case
  
  Twitter says it “provides a voice for liberty around the globe” — an image the microblogging service promoted during the populist uprisings of the Arab Spring. But it remains to be seen how it reacts to activist controversies right here at home.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Revealed: ITU’s deep packet snooping standard leaks online
- WCIT – China And Russia Withdraw Bid For Greater Control Of Internet
  
  Controversial proposals handed to the ITU on Friday have now been withdrawn
- Committee says no to draft Communications Data Bill
  
  The draft Communications Data Bill has today been roundly criticised by the committee of MPs and Peers, who make clear that the draft Bill is not fit for purpose and unacceptable in its current form. The report makes clear tinkering and minor changes are nowhere near enough – this draft bill is unacceptable to Parliament and if there is to be legislation, it is back to the drawing board for the Home Office.
- Joint Committee slams Home Office’s Snoopers’ Charter
- Snoopers Charter Report Summary
  
  A non-partisan, well-informed cross-Parliamentary committee has found the draft Communications Data Bill is so badly – almost abusively – drafted that it must not be allowed to proceed without substantial revision. Here’s my summary.
- EU bringing positive momentum – update on WCIT conference in Dubai
  
  The EU is bringing a positive momentum. Some examples are debates on roaming, transparency, accessibility, and energy efficiency. These are issues of interest and importance not just to European citizens, but to all those who would be affected by a new ITR treaty. And what is new at this conference is that Europe speaks with one voice, thanks to a joint decision Member States took before going to Dubai, based on a European Commission proposal.
  
  On other issues the EU has suggested compromises that have been rejected.
- EU Parliament Calls For Action Against Net Access Restrictions
  
  Today, the EU Parliament adopted two important resolutions underlining its commitment to protecting and promoting rights and freedoms on the Internet, especially on the issue of Net neutrality. La Quadrature du Net welcomes this vote by EU lawmakers, and urges the EU Commission as well as Member States to follow suit by enacting legislation to protect freedoms online and foster democracy as well as innovation.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - Who Ever Thought APIs Were Copyrightable, Anyway?
    
    Back in the summer, there was a widely covered story about Judge Alsup’s decision regarding copyrightablity in the Oracle v. Google case. Oracle has appealed the verdict so presumably this will enter the news again at some point. I’d been meaning to write a blog post about it since it happened, and also Karen Sandler and I had been planning an audcast to talk about it.
  - Top 10 articles celebrating Creative Commons’ very uncommon last 10 years
    
    To a lot of people all over the world, Creative Commons is more than a license. The organization and their mission is a shining copyleft-light for work rendered by artists, designers, writers, and the list goes on. Here at Opensource.com all of our original content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) which means that you are welcome to share (copy, distribute, and transmit the work), to remix (to adapt the work), or to make commercial use of the work. And many of our contributors choose to attribute thier work under the same license. Why?
  - How Do You Find Usenet Files?
  - Jammie Thomas asks Supreme Court to take file-sharing case
    
    Acting on her promise, Jammie Thomas-Rasset has finally fought her music uploading case all the way to the Supreme Court. Her lawyers announced today that they have filed an official petition asking the Supreme Court to review her long-running case, which has moved up through the courts over the past five years.
    
    In 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) accused Thomas-Rasset of copyright infringement for sharing 1,700 copyrighted songs — the equivalent of 150 CDs. But the RIAA whittled down the number to 24. A jury heard the evidence against her and rendered a $222,000 verdict.
  - Antivirus guru John McAfee sells rights for movie about his life
    
    Currently fighting deportation efforts in Guatemala, the antivirus-software pioneer sells life-story rights to a Montreal-based TV production company.

]]> http://techrights.org/2012/12/12/openmandriva/feed/ 0 Links 15/10/2012: New Btrfs Features In Linux 3.7, New E17 Snapshot http://techrights.org/2012/10/15/new-e17-snapshot/ http://techrights.org/2012/10/15/new-e17-snapshot/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:01:12 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=63572

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Zim text editor 0.57 adds LilyPond and Zeitgeist plugins

With the release of version 0.57, Zim developer Jaap Karssenberg has reworked the side panes in his graphical text editor, while also improving existing plugins and adding new ones. Written in Python using GTK+ libraries, Zim maintains a collection of locally stored wiki pages, each of which can contain simple formatting, as well as links to other pages, images and attachments. Pages are stored as plain text with wiki formatting and the software can be expanded with various plugins, such as a spell checker and an equation editor.
Three new widgets in jQuery UI 1.9.0

Three new widgets are the highlights of the new features in jQuery UI 1.9.0, as the developers work towards completely refreshing the HTML5/JavaScript UI toolkit for a future 2.0 release. One widget, Menu, was technically in the previous release, 1.8, but was bundled within the autocomplete widget; now it has been broken out and promoted to being a first class widget for inline and popup menus and for use as a basis for more complex menus.
Twitter open sources Clutch.io mobile A/B testing tool

Following its acquisition of Clutch.io in mid-August, Twitter has announced that Clutch.io’s software for developing, deploying and integrating native mobile applications is now available as open source. Described by Chris Aniszczyk, Open Source Manager at Twitter, as “an easy-to-integrate library for native iOS applications”, Clutch consists of two projects: the Clutch A/B testing service and the Clutch Framework.
The Next Battleground for Open vs. Closed? Your Car

It all seems upside down: a major toy company releases its first tablet; a major search company works on its first car. Yet all of this makes sense when you realize everyone just wants to be – or may already be – in the mobile device business. Including car companies.

A friend recently showed me his shiny new luxury sports car. Did he rave about the 333-horsepower, six-cylinder engine, or 14-speaker, noise-cancelling stereo system? No. His first point of pride was the car’s ability to become an internet hotspot, powering Wi-Fi devices throughout the vehicle. This makes sense when you realize cars have become our portable offices and homes, a shared mobile experience for the entire family.
Contribution of open source to Europe’s economy: 450 billion per year
Events
- One Week To LinuxDays In Prague
  
  Coming up next weekend is the first-ever LinuxDays event in Prague, which will happen alongside a Gentoo mini-conference, an openSUSE conference, and the SUSE Labs conference.
SaaS
- Open Cloud Means APIs, Data and Code, Says Mickos
- OpenNebula survey shows industry use dominating
  
  OpenNebula, the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud project, sees the majority of its deployment in industry, according to C12G’s latest Cloud Architecture Survey. The survey, conducted by the commercial company behind OpenNebula over the second and third quarters of 2012, polled 2,500 users of OpenNebula and only analyses the responses from the 820 who reported having OpenNebula up and running.
- Amazon Web Services upgrades cloud-based Linux implementation
  
  The latest version of Amazon Web Services’ Linux AMI is now available, and includes the R language as well as new versions of Apache and PHP.
Databases
- How 3.6 nearly broke PostgreSQL
  
  In mid-September, the 3.6 kernel appeared to be stabilizing nicely. Most of the known regressions had been fixed, the patch volume was dropping, and Linus was relatively happy. Then Nikolay Ulyanitsky showed up with a problem: the pgbench PostgreSQL benchmark ran 20% slower than under 3.5. The resulting discussion shows just how hard scalability can be on contemporary hardware and how hard scheduling can be in general.
CMS
- Canada’s Largest Art and Design University Leverages Canvas Open Source for its LMS
  
  OCAD University, Canada’s largest school for art and design, has moved to Canvas by Instructure for the 2012-13 school year. OCAD U is the first university in Canada to implement Canvas Community Version, the open-source version of Canvas, for its students and faculty. The university has been running Canvas since January 2012 and has 4,500 students and 1,500 courses on the system today.
Education
- Education is the new oil that will drive the information revolution
  
  Jim Whitehurst presented on Saturday morning at the 2012 installment of TEDxRaleigh, speaking to a sold-out crowd in Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre. Now in its third year, TEDxRaleigh has brought together local innovators, researchers and thought leaders to give local flair to a wildly successful national event.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- GIMP 2.8 and the Taming of Two Decades’ Graphics Habits
Project Releases
- Obnam 1.2 introduces diff command for backups
  
  Developer Lars Wirzenius has released Obnam 1.2, the latest version of his open source snapshotting backup utility. The new version includes a diff command and several improvements to its existing options, as well as a collection of bug fixes. Obnam, which has been in development since 2006 and graduated to version 1.0 in June, creates generational backup copies that remove the need for the user to care whether they should create an incremental or a full backup. Obnam’s copies share as much data as possible and only changed data is backed up in subsequent runs.
- Phoronix Test Suite 4.2-Randaberg Hits First Stage
- Open source framework Zikula now with mobile theme
  
  The latest release of the open source application framework Zikula includes a number of updates and fixes which, the developers hope, will allow Zikula 1.2 users to upgrade without issues. Along with changes for PHP 5.4 compatibility, the new version, Zikula 1.3.4, includes updated versions of jQuery and jQuery UI, and a default theme for viewing on mobile devices. The password recovery system has also been fixed and there have been fixes and enhancements made to Forms, ContextMenus, Menu Tree and DateUtil.
- Lucene and Solr 4.0 released
  
  After entering beta mid-August, the final 4.0 versions of the Apache project’s Lucene search engine library and Solr, the search platform built on top of Lucene, have now been released. Solr allows users to create a full-text web-accessible, dynamically clustered search engine that is capable of ingesting rich documents like Word or PDF files and indexing them for complex searching.
Licensing
- NVIDIA wants to remove GPL marker from Linux interface
  
  NVIDIA developer Robert Morell has proposed removing a marker for the Linux kernel’s GPL licence from a Linux kernel driver interface, apparently in order to permit the use of the interface with proprietary drivers. A discussion thread on the topic has seen several key kernel developers express clear opposition to the proposal and debate over which developers would have to consent to such a change.
Programming
- LLVM 3.2 Gets A Release Plan For Mid-December
  
  Since last month we have known that Apple has wanted to release LLVM 3.2 this year along with an updated Clang compiler. Now the release plans for this next LLVM compiler infrastructure release have been firmed up.
- Patches For OpenMP Support In LLVM’s Clang
- The Performance Between GCC Optimization Levels
  
  For those that have never benchmarked the performance differences between GCC’s different optimization levels, here are some recent test results comparing the performance differences when using an AMD FX-8150 processor with GCC 4.7.2.

Leftovers

Intellectual Monopolies
- Apple’s Going to Pay Up for the iOS 6 Clock Design It Stole
  
  Apple’s Going to Pay Up for the iOS 6 Clock Design It StoleApple shamlessly swiped the design of iOS 6′s iPad clock from the Swiss National Railway, and a couple of weeks ago, it was called out. Now that its copycatism has been exposed, Apple has agreed to licensing terms.

]]> http://techrights.org/2012/10/15/new-e17-snapshot/feed/ 0 Links 6/10/2012: Linux Increasingly Dominates in Tablet http://techrights.org/2012/10/06/tablets-stats/ http://techrights.org/2012/10/06/tablets-stats/#comments Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:04:21 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=63395

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Five Reasons to prove Linux is Secure than Windows
Desktop
- The Chromebook 2012 Gallery
- Will a Chromebook be your next PC?
  
  Sure, you could keep using Windows, although Windows 8 looks worse every time you look at it; or you could buy a Mac for big bucks; or you could buy a Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook starting at $449 and have a great Linux-based desktop that you already know how to use.
Kernel Space
Applications
- Here Comes Calibre 0.8.69 With Customizable Themes
  
  Ebook Managent Application Calibre has been updated to version 0.8.69 and this version comes with better support for Mathematical formulas and custom themes. Users will have the ability to create their own themes (visual styles) and read ebooks according their choice.
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - Linux Game Faster Than Light Released
Desktop Environments
- First Look: Elementary OS Window Manager Gala
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - WebAccounts To Arrive In KDE
    
    The above screenshot shows its current status. The developers are also planning to support other services like Twitter, Identi.ca etc.
  - Compiling KDE Kontact from Source
  - Calligra Productivity Suite: Too Much Trouble
    
    In theory Calligra presents an alternative to the LibreOffice and OpenOffice suites. It goes far beyond the usefulness of lightweight word processors such as Abiword and Kword. In practice Calligra has so much going for it that few things work impressively well. Needed functions were difficult to locate, and the suite has a steep learning curve.
  - KDE Ships October Updates to Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Platform
    
    These updates are the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.9 series. 4.9.2 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on top of the latest edition in the 4.9 series and are recommended updates for everyone running 4.9.1 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come.
  - KDE Celebrates 2012 Google Summer of Code Success
  - KDE Commit-Digest for 29th July 2012
  - KDE at LinuxCon 2012 North America
    
    KDE had a visible presence at LinuxCon 2012 in San Diego, California, August 29-31. Thanks to the Linux Foundation for donating an exhibit space to KDE.
- GNOME Desktop
  - Introducing Intelligent Search For Gnome Shell
    
    Gnome Shell, a desktop environment based on top of Gnome 3, will soon have some intelligent search features integrated with it. Current search function in Gnome shell allows one to search for apps and files, however, in future, it may do more. Like a single search can fetch things from your empathy chat log, photos, documents and more.
  - Cinnamon 1.6.1 Released
    
    The Linux Mint team has announced an updated version of the Cinnamon desktop. This is the first update in Cinnamon 1.6 series. Along with bug fixes, this release also includes some stability enhancements and extension updates. Detailed updates have been given below:
  - Taste Gnome 3.6 By Live Booting
  - 7 Things About Gnome 3.6 That You Will Love
  - A Preview Of Upcoming Gnome Calender
    
    Gnome developers are working to make a Calender app integrated with the Gnome desktop. Note, the Evolution software suite also features a Calender app, but this software will be separate. This app will also allow you to integrate online calenders like Google, Facebook etc in your desktop. Some screenshots:
  - Gnome Software – A Software Center For Gnome
    
    The Gnome foundation had earlier announced plans to develop a Software Center like app for the desktop that will allow easier installation and updates of apps. While the PackageKit is pushed to the back, here are some design ideas put forward in Gnome Live.
  - Search, Manage, And Install Apps From PPAs Using PPA Software Center
  - Gnome Web Browser Now Even Better
    
    While Linux has tons of web browsers to choose from, little is heard from Gnome’s own web browser – Web. While Gnome 3.6 is going to be released soon and developers pledging to make it the best release ever, its not surprising that this web browser has got tons of changes and more integration with the overall desktop environment.
Distributions
- From Noobs to Experts: Is There an ABC for Linux Distros?
  
  Do Linux bloggers enjoy extolling the virtues of their favorite distros? Let’s just say there aren’t superlatives superlative enough for some.
- Thinking Small With Tiny Core Linux
  
  I recently had the need to build a virtual appliance, a small Linux server that did one thing, and required no interaction. And by small, I mean really small, tiny. After considering the options and searching around a bit, I found the Tiny Core Linux, and when they say tiny, they mean it. The Tiny Core download is only 12MB.
- This Week in Linux: Mageia, openSUSE, Dreamlinux
- New Releases
- PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
  - Wow! Where did the time go? We’re 2!
    
    Back in September 2010, when Mageia was born, we had big dreams for our baby distro. It’s great to be able to say: our dreams are coming true!
- Red Hat Family
  - Exclusive Interview: DeLisa Alexander Of Red Hat
    
    We recently started a section in Muktware called Woman Force In Open Source where we interview female executives and developers playing an important role in the Open Source world. This week we are interviewing DeLisa Alexander, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of Red Hat.
  - Red Hat Enters Next Phase of Its Application Server Technology Strategy
  - Here’s How Red Hat Is Making You So Much Cash
    
    Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company’s economic output. That’s because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.
  - Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) Honors Red Hat for Fourth Consecutive Year
  - TBJ Flash: 2012 Best Places To Work Awards
    
    Held at the Embassy Suites in Cary, the event recognized dozens of companies for their best practices when it comes to keeping employees happy at work. Those honored included the local offices of Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), Rex Healthcare, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP), and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT).
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
Devices/Embedded
- Micromax Launches Funbook Infinity P275 For Indian Market At INR 6,699
  
  Micromax has launched yet another tablet to there existing lineup of Funbook family Infinity P275. Priced at INR 6,699 Infinity P275 features 7-inch display. The tablet is running on top of Android 4.0.4, and is powered by 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor. Infinity P275 comes with a back up of 6hrs which is backed by 4000 mAh battery.
- Meet BrewPi: A Raspberry Pi-based Fermentation Controller
  
  Now here’s a sudsy open source idea. You’ve heard all about the Raspberry Pi–the diminutive Linux-based $25/$35 computer that is being welcomed by hackers everywhere. The tiny devices have already drawn interest from educational system and technology industry leaders. But now there is BrewPi, an open source fermentation controller that runs on Arduino open source hardware and a Raspberry Pi. This device joins the Lego-based Raspberry Pi supercomputer as one of the best Pi devices yet.
- Phones
  - Jolla Mobile Forms Alliance For MeeGo Ecosystem
    
    Jolla Mobile is setting up a new ecosystem by forming an alliance in Hong Kong together with the leading players in the industry. The new fully mobile operating system, based on MeeGo and codenamed “Sailfish”, will be ready for licensing by other device manufacturers, design houses and service companies in spring 2013.
  - Jolla Mobile, MeeGo Powered Smartphone To Come By Year End : Jussi Hurmola
    
    Jolla Mobile a Helsiki-based startup plans to release their first handset by the end of this year which will be running on MeeGo OS. This piece of news comes from Jolla Mobile CEO Jussi Hurmola during an interview with GigaOM.
  - Jolla nabs €200m funding, preps MeeGo OS for licensing in mid-2013
    
    The funding will come from a number of partners in Jolla’s newly established ecosystem alliance, the company announced on Tuesday. While Jolla is yet to name the partners in question, it has said they will include chipset vendors, OEMs, ODMs, operators and retailers and that the alliance will be based in Hong Kong. Jolla itself will contribute €10m to the funding pot, Jolla’s chief Jussi Hurmola told the Wall Street Journal.
  - Jolla’s MeeGo revival plans shape up with $260m ecosystem alliance
  - MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch
    
    The Finnish startup Jolla Ltd says that it has raised €200 million from a number of, currently unnamed, telecommunications companies and that it will be unveiling a MeeGo-based device next month. The funding consortium is reported to include at least one telecom operator, a chipset maker, and device and component manufacturers. Reports in the Wall Street Journal say that the company is well advanced with its plans and will show the first version of its MeeGo-based system, “Sailfish”, next month.
  - Android
    - AT&T Bringing Three New Android Smartphones And One Tablet From Samsung
    - Google Celebrates 25 Billion Android App Downloads
    - Use Android Devices As PS3 Netflix Remote
      
      The launch of the new Netfilx UI interface was a highly publicized stuff, but the hidden feature that was added with the update failed to see the lime light. It is discovered that the new Netflix app now allows you to use your Android device as a remote control for Netflix on your PS3 as long as both are on the same local network.
    - After delay, Jelly Bean update arrives for ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity
    - Google: Android eclipses half billion activated devices
      
      Google has officially seen 500 million Android devices activated since the release of the G1 back in fall 2008.
    - Make a Handy Little Android PC for Light Lifting
      
      A mini Android PC won’t let you perform molecular modeling or quantum physics. However, it could be perfect for kids’ homework, kitchen counter-top menu research, workshop manuals display and such — in fact, anywhere you need light word processing, Web and video. Plus, you get all of the Ice Cream Sandwich apps you want from the Google Play store.
    - The HTC One X+ With Android Jelly Bean
      
      HTC has unveiled the HTC One X+, a refreshed version of its HTC One X smartphone, running the HTC Sense 4+ experience on Android Jelly Bean. It is claimed to be 67% faster than the equivalent One X and up to 27% faster than the HTC One X.
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Is $99 Nexus 7 Coming?
    
    The $199 Google Nexus 7 might already be the most affordable and probably the best Android tablet available in the market currently. However, Google might try to take things one step further with a cheaper $99 Nexus tablet. According to DigiTimes and its industry sources, Google may launch a $99 Nexus Tablet by the end of 2012 along with a new model of the existing Nexus 7 tablet.
    
    Both the new models of the Nexus tablet shall use Twisted Nematic (TN) display panel manufactured by HannStar Display of Taiwan, which is the same company that is in the Apple’s portfolio of vendors.
  - Barnes & Noble Hits Amazon With Ads Free Nook Tablets, Challenges iPad
  - Google to launch the next Nexus device in 30 days?
  - Samsung says Galaxy Note II sales could top 20 million, launch set for October
    
    Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy Note “phablet” was a huge success, with cumulative sales having recently topped 10 million units. Though T-Mobile USA just got around to launching the supersized smartphone last month, the sequel has already been unveiled and Samsung has high hopes for it. Speaking with reporters on Friday, Samsung mobile boss JK Shin said sales of the upcoming Galaxy Note II could top 20 million units. ”Sales may grow more than two-fold (compared with the previous model),” Shin said according to Yonhap News Agency. The Samsung executive also reportedly said that the Galaxy Note II will launch some time in October.
  - Five great Android tablets you can buy today instead of waiting for the iPad Mini
    
    I like iPads. I own one and often use it. That said, I never cared for its size; Apple’s locked-in, proprietary software ecosystem; and lately Apple’s iOS updates have been including a lot of sloppy mistakes. So it is that more often than not I’ve been using a variety of 7″ Android-powered tablets instead of my iPad. And, you know what? Just because it seems almost certain there will soon be an iPad Mini, I don’t see any reason to be rushing out to buy one.
  - US data show slump in Apple tablet share
    
    It’s no great surprise, perhaps, that Google’s Android is taking tablet share from Apple, but new figures suggest the rate of catch-up has accelerated this year.
  - Tablet Powered By Ice Cream Sandwich For Kids
    
    Keeping kids in mind, Oregon Scientific has launched MEEP tablet running on top of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Tablet features a 7 inch screen. Meep is powered by 1GHZ cortex A8 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, HDMI output, Wi-Fi, and a 0.3 MP front-facing camera.

Free Software/Open Source

Open Source Fear Mongering Is Ridiculous With The Advent Of Open APIs

Open source fear mongering is still a reality. But in today’s world, it is nuanced with the belief that an open enterprise means open APIs.

They are not the same and should not be confused.

The issue surfaces more now that RESTful APIs have become the chosen way to exchange information through applications. They turn the enterprise metaphor on its head. It’s no longer a fortress surrounded by four walls. Instead, the enterprise walls are porous with data flowing in and out like never before.
Piwik, An Open Source Alternative To Google Analytics

Piwik is a free and open source web analytics tool which is highly customizable. It is a great open source alternative to the widely used Google Analytics. Piwik provides users with full control of their data. Eliminating the risk of sharing unwanted information with advertising companies that is faced while using Google Analytics.
Events
- Bringing the Open Cloud to Las Vegas: The CloudStack Collaboration Conference
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Firefox Tops Chrome’s Market Share, But Chrome Is Winning at Speed Tests
  - Chrome OS: Ready for Round Two?
    
    Here at OStatic, we’re big fans of real-time reports on full immersion trials of open source platforms. On ZDNet, James Kendrick is reporting on his real-time immersion with a Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook, running Google’s Chrome OS. His early reaction to the system shows that Google may be fixing some of the problems with its operating system, and could win over more users with it.
- Mozilla
  - Video Demo Of Firefox OS Released
  - Firefox and Iceweasel can ‘mailto’ with Sylpheed and Claws Mail
SaaS
- Open Cloud Means APIs, Data and Code, Says Mickos
  
  Finland native, LinuxCon Europe keynoter and Eucalyptus Systems CEO Marten Mickos took a few minutes to share his latest thoughts on what open cloud really means and what role Linux and open source software are meant to play in the technology shift being prompted by cloud computing. LinuxCon Europe takes place November 5-7, 2012 in Barcelona.
- Not Everyone Is So Smitten with OpenStack
- Rackspace Adds Certification to its OpenStack Training Arsenal
- Survey Shows That Concerns Remain in the Open Source Cloud
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- OpenWorld 2012: What’s in store
  
  With each year, Oracle becomes a bigger company and in turn, so does its annual OpenWorld conference, which kicks off Sunday in San Francisco.
  
  In fact, Oracle’s long run of acquisitions, spanning from applications to middleware to hardware, has resulted in so many partner and customer constituencies that it’s now co-locating a number of additional shows, including MySQL Connect and JavaOne, along with the main OpenWorld program.
- Oracle Cloud Partner Program and PaaS: No MySQL Plans
  
  Even as Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) launches a MySQL 5.6 Release Candidate, there are no plans to offer MySQL as a PaaS platform within the new Oracle Cloud Partner Program. But Channel Chief Judson Althoff, speaking at Oracle OpenWorld 2012, described numerous other ways that Oracle is enhancing and promoting MySQL to partners and customers.
- The Fox in the FOSS Henhouse
  
  Oracle’s proprietary posture may have soiled the welcome mat and vilified its good standing in the FOSS community as CEO Larry Ellison has pushed the balance point between servicing his customers and nickel-and-diming them to turn a higher profit. Clearly, since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems — and with it OpenOffice and Java — the company has not acted very neighborly with open source developers.
- LibreOffice Updated to 3.6.2
  
  The Document Foundation today announced the latest stable release of popular free office suite, LibreOffice 3.6.2. This release bring lots of bug and regression fixes. Yeah, the changelog is long and boring, but it adds up to improved stability for LibreOfffice users – which is always a good thing.
- The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.6.2
CMS
- Drupal Special Edition
  
  As Linux Journal’s resident Drupal nerd, I could not be more pleased to bring you this special Drupal issue. Drupal really is everywhere these days, and it’s available in more “flavors” than most people in the Open Source community are aware of. So in the interest of spreading awareness about my favorite and ever-growing open-source project, we hope you’ll find this special issue both informative and inspiring.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Grub Customizer 3.0.1 Released
  
  If you often need to customize GRUB entries, the usual way we do this is to edit the configuration files by hand. With GRUB 2.00 arriving, this has become more complicated as GRUB entries do not reside on a single file. However, GRUB Customizer is a nice app that allows you to view, edit and manage GRUB entries in a simpler way.
- Hampshire College distributes free software bundle to all incoming students
  
  Hampshire student and FSF campaigns organizer Kira shares the success of their ambitious project to help fellow students get started with free software. The achievements of Kira’s organization, LibrePlanet/Students for Free Culture, is exciting and replicable outside of Hampshire. Kira provides suggestions to help other students realize the same changes at their schools.
Project Releases
- First and last BETA before 4.0
  
  As you might have guessed, Ekiga 4.0 is on its way. It will be the latest release to be based on GTK2 technologies.
- FreeIPMI 1.2.2 Released
- Blender 2.64 released
- Open Recall: WordPress, SugarCon, Etherpad, Ubuntu 13.04
Public Services/Government
- Over two hundred Belgian political candidates support free software
  
  A grass roots campaign has managed to get 278 candidates for the upcoming Belgian communal and provincial elections to pledge their support for free and open source software. “And, so-far, three political parties, the Socialist Party, Ecolo and Mouvement Réformateur, have promised me their general support”, says Nicolas Pettiaux, one of two volunteers contacting politicians.
- City of Arles pleased by savings open source enterprise software
  
  The French city of Arles is content with the savings that it made by switching to free and open source enterprise applications. The city’s 2006 migration plan, however, proved too optimistic: the switch took not three but six years, and it resulted in savings worth 450,000 euro, instead of the estimated 780,000.
Programming
- Open Source Python 3.3 Boosts Virtualization

Leftovers

A new Apple iOS Wi-Fi problem has popped up while others remain unfixed

Some Apple iPhone and iPad users are facing a major new problem with Wi-Fi/cellular data use while others are still dealing with earlier, unresolved iOS 6 Wi-Fi problems.

The latest annoyance is a real pain-in-the-rump. It turns out that while some of you have been watching videos, playing a game, whatever, on what you thought was a Wi-Fi network, you were actually running up your giant 3G data bill. Apple hasn’t commented on this, but on September 30th, Apple quietly released a bug fix for the problem for its Verizon customers.
Microsoft Surface midnight release – Seriously?

My sceptical mind has me thinking that people turning up to this midnight launch of Microsoft’s, will certainly be more than just “average consumers” but for the camera, I’m sure they will be hyperactive, happy, Microsoft consumers. Lets hope if Microsoft is making a PR stunt of sorts out of this that they fair far better than when they tried it with the “iPhone funeral” stunt.
MEPs must be ready to reject an ACTA-like Canada/EU Trade Agreement

Ahead of the next round of negotiations of CETA, the Canada/EU Trade Agreement1, La Quadrature du Net publishes its dedicated web-dossier. The citizen organization urges the Members of the European Parliament to demand full transparency and be ready to reject CETA as they did with ACTA, if any of the anti-Internet, anti-citizens’ freedoms provisions remain in the final agreement.
Finance
- In Goldman Programmer Case, a Way Around Double Jeopardy
  
  The legal odyssey of Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs computer programmer, has been so complex that it’s like the Grateful Dead’s lyrics “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”
  
  He was convicted in federal court of stealing computer code from Goldman, only to have the conviction reversed on appeal, which resulted in his release after spending a year in prison. A few months later, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with essentially the same violations, which led Mr. Aleynikov to file a lawsuit against Goldman to force the firm to pay for his lawyer.
- Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. : CFTC’s Gensler to push on with position limits
- Goldman Sachs Ripped by Critics for History of Putting Profits Over Clients
  
  HighTower’s Weissbluth faults bank brokerage business model; derivatives expert Tavakoli says Goldman’s misbehavior well documented
Censorship
- Google Rejects White House Censorship Request, Blocks Innocence Of Muslims In India, Indonesia
  
  The US government recently asked Google to remove the controversial YouTube movie which triggered the anti-US protest in the Middle East.
  
  Google has however restricted access to the movie in sensational areas such as India and Indonesia to avoid any communal conflict. Google maintained that the restriction has been imposed to comply with the local laws and not due to some political pressure.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Digital Martial Law: 10 scary things about the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012
  
  Cyberspace has become the platform of the best and worst things that people can come up with when they’re online. While it’s a hotbed of game-changing ideas and artistic expression, it has also turned into a breeding ground for trolls and cyberthugs. That being said, well-meaning Pinoy lawmakers thought it best to pass Republic Act No. 10175 or The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. But, wait! There’s a catch. This very same law that professes to protect us from those who would do us wrong via digital means also threatens to take away our freedom to say what we want.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - European Parliament Committee Calls For Creation Without Copyright To Become EU Policy
    
    The European Union’s governmental machine is a complicated beast, with its intertwining of supra-national, national and party-political levels (if you’re interested in understanding how it works, the digital rights organization EDRI has put together a useful introduction (pdf).) That makes it quite hard to tell what is going on behind the scenes with this new Opinion of the International Trade Committee on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy (pdf.)
  - Digital Economy Act: Costs Order debate pulled
    
    Open Rights Group has just learnt that the debate in the Lords scheduled for Monday, in the Moses Room, to discuss the DEA Costs Order has been pulled.
    
    We do not know the reasons why, but there are some very serious concerns with the order. The order had previously been withdrawn due to drafting errors.
    
    Firstly, Ofcom ran a consultation at the same time as DCMS laid the Order before Parliament. This seems pretty odd.

]]> http://techrights.org/2012/10/06/tablets-stats/feed/ 0 Links 30/6/2012: Mandriva Foundation Structure Outlined, Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 2 is Out http://techrights.org/2012/06/30/mandriva-foundation-structure-outlined/ http://techrights.org/2012/06/30/mandriva-foundation-structure-outlined/#comments Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:29:43 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=61116

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Has the Command Line Outstayed Its Welcome?

The Command Line Interface has its uses, acknowledged Mobile Raptor blogger Roberto Lim, “but no piece of technology targeted at the consumer market should ever require that something be done via CLI; keep it as an option or you can take it out all together. “If it is there, it should just be there for the IT people or tech support to use when you encounter a problem.”
Video, Graphics and GNU/Linux

So, the naysayers are “out to lunch”. Their pet “video editing” section is dominated by GNU/Linux:
Desktop
Audiocasts/Shows
- The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 461
Kernel Space
- The weird codenames of Linux kernels
  
  You must already know about the funny codenames of each release of Ubuntu. However, Im sure not many of you know that Linux kernels have their codenames too. And of course, these codenames are weird and funny as hell, like Homicidal Dwarf Hamster, Pink Farting Weasel or Sheep on Meth. ( And as you can guess, Linus Torvalds is the author of these codenames). The codename of each Linux kernel can be found in the makefile of the source trees.
- New Open Cloud Computing Forum on Linux.com
- Intel Ivy Bridge On Linux Two-Month Redux
- Intel Puts New Haswell Code At Parity With Ivy Bridge
- The Latest Details On Intel’s Valley View Atom SoC
- Graphics Stack
  - A New Patch To Improve Radeon Gallium3D Performance
  - Bringing DRM Drivers Back To Older Linux Kernels
    
    As part of a GSoC project through the Linux Foundation, some of the popular open-source DRM graphics drivers are being back-ported to older Linux kernel releases.
  - Open-Source Radeon HD 7000 Series Still Lacking
    
    While Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors are only two months old, there’s already a feature-rich driver and the full programming documentation available. Meanwhile for the Radeon HD 7000 series from AMD that is now more than six months old, the open-source driver is still incomplete and the documentation is lacking.
  - Potential Good News For NVIDIA Optimus On Linux
    
    There’s some hope for NVIDIA laptop customers that rely upon their binary Linux graphics drivers that one day hope to utilize Optimus Technology.
  - Nvidia loses 10 million GPU order due to poor Linux support
  - AMD Catalyst 12.6 For Linux Disappoints
    
    Following the changing of the Catalyst release schedule and dropping old hardware support, Catalyst 12.6 for Linux has been officially released. However, it’s already disappointing some Linux binary driver users.
  - The Last ATI/AMD Radeon UMS Driver Release
  - Better Radeon DRM Code Documentation Comes
Applications
- Tomahawk 0.5 Released with New Features and Improvements
  
  Tomahawk is a free and open-source music player that allows you to connect your other machines and friends via Jabber, Google Chat and Twitter. You can browse and play their libraries, playlists and stations.
- Open Formats, Open Editors
- Math, Science, and Ubuntu Come Together in Mathbuntu
- Instructionals/Technical
  - How to Install Hundreds of Fonts at Once in Ubuntu [Quick Tips]
  - How to Install Emerald Window Decorator on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
  - How to install Webmin on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS
  - How to Configure Permissions in Linux
  - Secure programming with the OpenSSL API, Part 1: Overview of the API
  - How to Turn Off Modal Dialogs in Mint 13 Cinnamon
  - Ubuntu 12.04 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
  - Vinyl cutting on Linux: the real deal (Libre Graphics World)
- Games
  - How to play Minecraft on Archlinux
  - Alien Arena Reloaded Coming Next Week
    
    John Diamond, the CEO of COR Entertainment LLC, has shared with Phoronix that the plan is to release Alien Arena: Reloaded on 6 July. The Alien Arena: Reloaded Edition game will feature twelve new levels, two new player characters, and an innovative new weapon when it comes to the game assets.
Desktop Environments
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
- GNOME Desktop
  - Gnome 3.6 Will Get Power Off Button
    
    One of the reasons many Gnome users were frustrated with default Gnome 3 Shell was the lack of power off button by default. All you got when clicking of the user menu at top right was a suspend option. You might have to waste some moments to search Google and learn to use the Alt key to get Power Off.
  - Lockdown: The new kickass Gnome App!
    
    The highly anticipated mechanism which is used to bar Gnome users from performing certain actions is on the way, and its name is Lockdown.
  - Gnome Power Off latest re-design
  - Gnome announces BoD roles on public
    
    Few days ago the new BoD was elected and today Gnome Live addresses the roles and responsibilities for each member.
Distributions
Devices/Embedded
- Phones
  - Android
    - Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” Arrives at Google I/O, Looks Impressive
      
      The Google I/O conference is in full swing this week, and many of the rumors from recent weeks are coming true. As we discussed last week, Google did show off its new $199 7-inch Nexus tablet that will run the latest Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” mobile OS. Hands-on reviews of the tablet, many of them favorable, are appearing. Of course, Android 4.1 is also big news and will be at the heart of Google’s mobile strategy going forward. Here is more on what’s new in it.
    - Android 4.1 Jelly Bean SDK is out now, what you need to know
    - Lenovo LePhone K860 comes with quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, Android 4.0 ICS
      
      At the moment, the only officially-announced smartphones to use a quad-core Samsung Exynos processor are the Galaxy S III (not all versions), and the Meizu MX 4-core. But there’s a third one that should be announced soon: the Lenovo LePhone K860.
    - Chrome Out Of Beta, Default Browser Of Android 4.1
      
      With Android 4.1 Google Chrome has become the default web browser of Android devices. Which means that Chrome for Android is out of beta and get its first stable channel. However, Chrome is available only for devices above Android 4.0.
    - What’s New In Android 4.1 – For Developers?
      
      Improvements include a smoother and more responsive UI across the system, a home screen that automatically adapts to fit your content, a powerful predictive keyboard, richer and more interactive notifications, larger payload sizes for Android Beam sharing and much more.
    - Google Nexus Q
      
      Nexus Q was the surprise announcement that Google made during IO2012. Google claims that Nexus Q begins the new wave of content consumption devices. Nexus Q is primarily a streaming device which can stream content (movies and music) from the cloud to your entertainment system. It requires an Android tablet or phone to control it and then you can simply stream the content from your account.
    - ANDHDM2S: Dual-core Android computer-on-a-stick with HDMI connectivity
    - HTC on Jelly Bean updates
      
      So you just got that shiny, new HTC One X or One S (or One V outside the U.S.), and suddenly it’s no longer running the latest version of Android. That’s no good. Neither is it HTC’s fault, but still.
    - Google plans to ease the Android update problem
      
      Google is making another attempt to fix the Android update problem at the Google I/O conference. The plan is to give smartphone, tablet and chip manufacturers earlier opportunities to adapt their current and new hardware to forthcoming Android versions. Google said that it hopes that this will allow users to receive their updates faster.
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Is Google prepping a 10-inch tablet?
    
    Citing the usual “industry sources,” Taiwan-based DigiTimes says the search giant is planning a 10-inch Android tablet with display panels to be supplied by Wintek and AU Optronics. Wintek is the manufacturer behind the touch-screen panels for the Nexus 7 and has already picked up orders for around 500,000 panels from Google for the 7-inch tablet, according to the company’s chairman.
  - eGlide Pro X tablet announced by Ematic: ICS tablet for just $219
  - Google’s profit on every Nexus 7 tablet sold: $0
  - Nexus 7 tablet guidebook now available
  - Google Nexus 7 to be sold at Carphone Warehouse in the UK, 16GB for £200
  - Amazon prepping two new Kindle Fire tablets with improved build, metal casing
  - Two new Kindle Fires on Amazon’s front burner?
  - Asus Nexus 7
    
    The 7-inch tablet also introduces to the world Android 4.1 aka Jelly Bean. The tablet is seen by press as a competitor to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but Nexus 7 is more than just a content consumption device. The tablet features the new Google Maps which offers offline feature; all new offline voice search, and new Google Earth (with high quality 3D images).
  - Google Makes Its Play in Tablets
  - How Nexus 7 Will Finish Nook
    
    The Nexus 7 has been unveiled today to much fanfare. 2 years after the first mainstream Android tablet devices were introduced, Google has finally decided to make an official foray into a segment that is already populated by its immensely popular mobile operating system.
  - Why Google’s Nexus 7 tablet computer is a buy

Free Software/Open Source

Twitter open sources its Iago load generator

Twitter has announced that its Iago load generator is now available as open source. Chris Aniszczyk, Open Source Manager at Twitter, says that the micro-blogging company created Iago because existing open source and commercial load generators couldn’t provide all of the capabilities it required.
SaaS
- ownCloud 2012 Business Edition Adds LDAP Integration
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- Oracle Linux 6.3 released
- Oracle Linux 6.3 Screenshot
BSD
- DragonflyBSD 3.0 vs. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD Wheezy
  
  Continuing from the theme of the tests a few days back benchmarking Wheezy: Debian GNU/kFreeBSD vs. Debian GNU/Linux, here are some new numbers. Here’s some brief numbers concerning Debian GNU/kFreeBSD versus DragonflyBSD 3.0.2.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- Anatomy of a Stack Smashing Attack and How GCC Prevents It
Project Releases
- FreeMedForms 0.7.6 release
Licensing
- GNU GPLv3 turns 5
Openness/Sharing
- Why is innovation difficult?
  
  He explains that innovation doesn’t require a PHD, and that open source development is a great example of innovation and a way to bring different opinions together to advance technology.
  
  “Open source software is an innovation in that it brings together in a productive way programmers who disagree on many things,” Mickos said. He goes on to list other examples such as Facebook, the touchscreen, and e-learning.
- Should you crowdsource your strategy?
Standards/Consortia
- Adobe Flash Dead: No More Mobile Updates
  
  Adobe’s non-free technology Flash is dying a slow death. The company earlier announced that they will discontinue Flash for Android devices. Now, the company has posted that there won’t be any updates of Flash Player for mobile browsers. Adobe Flash will no longer be available in Google Play Store after August 15.
- No Flash for Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, users

Leftovers

Competition Bureau Praised In Spite of Doing Nothing About Wintel

The Competition Bureau is supposed to defend the Canadian economy from anti-competitive acts like exclusive dealing, bundling, price-fixing and the like. Despite some good work, the departing chief did nothing about M$ and its “partners” excluding GNU/Linux from retail shelves all across Canada. She did nothing about bundling that other OS with nearly every PC sold in Canada for decades. Clearly that prevents competition for operating systems and prevents competition on price/performance. Shame…
Health/Nutrition
- WTO Not So COOL: Rules Against Popular U.S. Meat Labeling Law
  
  The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a final ruling today against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. This popular pro-consumer policy, which informs shoppers where meat and other foods were raised or grown, enjoys the support of 93% of Americans, according to a 2010 Consumers Union poll. Now Congress must gut or change the law to avoid the application of punitive trade sanctions.
Finance
- Class Action to Teach Goldman Sachs Integrity
  
  Goldman Sachs cannot wiggle out of class action securities fraud claims by arguing that public statements that it valued “honesty,” “integrity” and “fair dealing” were “puffery,” not promises, a federal judge ruled.
- Taxpayers’ money given to people who don’t pay taxes – oh, the beauty of PFIs
  
  You’d imagine, as the economy continues to tank, as banks continue to reveal themselves as incompetent (RBS and NatWest) or crooked (Barclays et al), as Europe drifts deeper into turmoil, that the two political parties who delivered these conditions might be interested in working out between them what brought matters to this grievous state. But the Westminster setup means they don’t have to do anything so sensible. One of the things that both the Conservatives and Labour love about the first-past-the-post electoral system – maybe even the thing they love about it most – is that they have always got each other to blame.
  
  Take Private Finance Initiatives, under which – across the public sector – taxpayers owe around £229bn for assets worth a capital value of £56bn. Hospitals, particularly, are struggling under a debt burden that obliges them to spend up to a fifth of their income on PFI commitments each year. PFI was imported from Australia as a wheeze under Thatcher, first implemented under Major, enthusiastically embraced under Blair, then under Brown, then utilised yet further under Cameron.
- Goldman Sachs Said to Cut Administrative Jobs in the U.S
  
  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, eliminated several dozen jobs to pare expenses in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter.
  
  The cuts affected positions in New York, New Jersey and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to the person, who wasn’t authorized to comment and asked for anonymity. Another person with knowledge of the matter said the reductions affected administration and other jobs that don’t produce revenue.
  
  Wall Street firms are targeting expenses as trading slows and new regulations pinch profit. Goldman Sachs employed 32,400 people at the end of March, down 8 percent in 12 months. Reuters reported the cuts earlier.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- CNN’s “Dewey Defeats Truman” Moment
  
  CNN jumped the gun this morning when it erroneously announced that the Supreme Court had struck down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate — appearing to side with the court’s most vocal critics of the healthcare overhaul.
Civil Rights
- Eben Moglen: Time To Apply The First Law Of Robotics To Our Smartphones
Intellectual Monopolies
- Over 130 Representatives Spell Out Their Concerns With TPP In Letter To Ron Kirk
  
  As the TPP negotiations progress, concern about the almost total lack of transparency (and the USTR’s laughable statements to the contrary) is starting to gain significant attention. Most recently, we wrote about Rep. Darrell Issa’s request to observe the next round of negotiations, and before that, Senator Ron Wyden’s quizzing of Ron Kirk about transparency during a senate hearing. So far, the USTR has managed to brush this off by claiming everybody else in Congress was happy—but, like almost everything the USTR says about TPP, that too is blatantly untrue. Over 130 members of the House of Representatives have now chimed in by signing on to a much longer open letter addressed to USTR Ron Kirk, expressing specific concerns about the TPP process.
- Countries That Don’t Put In Place Copyright Regimes The US Likes May Be Deemed ‘Cybersecurity Concerns’
  
  So called “cybersecurity” and “intellectual property” are two very different issues, but it seems that politicians are realizing that they get further by screaming about “cybersecurity threats” than about “intellectual property infringement.” The latest proposed appropriations bill for the State Department includes a role for a “coordinator for cyber issues” — which is an awful title.
- How Extending Patent Protection For Antibiotics Creates Perverse Incentives To Render Them Useless
  
  The problem arises from natural selection. The more we use an antibiotic — especially if we use it carelessly, failing to complete the full course — the more we select for bacteria that are partially resistant to it. Over time, those bacteria thrive, displacing bacteria that are unable to withstand the antibiotic. Eventually, bacteria that are completely resistant to that particular drug are likely to evolve — a situation that can have dire consequences. For example, even five years ago, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) was killing more people in the US annually than AIDS.
- Copyrights
  - UK’s 3-Strikes Plan Continues To Grind Through The System; Still Not In Force, Still Awful
    
    As Techdirt reported in 2010, the passage of the Digital Economy Act was one of the most disgraceful travesties of the UK parliamentary process in recent times; it was badly drafted, hardly revised and then pushed through with almost no debate in the dying moments of the previous government. Since then, two UK ISPs — BT and TalkTalk — have challenged the Act in the courts, but lost earlier this year.
  - Megaupload Search Warrants Ruled Illegal by High Court
    
    The battle between Megaupload (David) and the US Government and the MPAA (Goliath) started out with a flurry of blows against the New Zealand based site staff, but in recent weeks the blows have all been falling stateside.
    
    Today, the New Zealand High Court ruled that the search warrants used to raid Dotcom’s mansion were illegal, casting uncertainty over the entire ‘Mega Conspiracy’ case.
    
    An earlier ruling by High Court Justice Judith Potter concluded that a previous search and seizure order was invalid because of improper paperwork. The documents were later corrected.
  - ACTA
    - Kill ACTA
      
      On June 25th, the European Union Parliamentary committee voted to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). This signifies a major blow to ACTA, but its standing in the EU still comes down to the European Parliament vote scheduled for July 4th.

]]> http://techrights.org/2012/06/30/mandriva-foundation-structure-outlined/feed/ 0 Links 26/6/2012: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is Coming http://techrights.org/2012/06/26/rhel7/ http://techrights.org/2012/06/26/rhel7/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:03:02 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=61035

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Virgin Atlantic IT director: airlines should work together on open source apps

Virgin Atlantic’s IT director, David Bulman, has called upon the airline industry to work collaboratively on open source applications that create an emerging standard for re-use and allow passengers to avoid downloading multiple tools.
SourceForge submits Allura to Apache’s Incubator

SourceForge has announced that Allura, the software that powers the popular project hosting service, has been submitted to the Apache Software Foundation Incubator for consideration, the first step in the process of becoming a top-level Apache project. With this move, the organisation says that it hopes “to draw an even wider community of developers who can advance the feature set and tailor the framework to their needs.”
SourceForge Sumits Allura To Apache Incubator
Giving the code away

Why do corporations give away code under free and open source licences? What benefits do they derive and what are the pitfalls that can doom these code give-aways? And how do they make a real community grow around these projects? Richard Hillesley looks at the difficulties and rewards to giving away code.
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
  - Firefox 13 – a review of sorts
    
    By now, even your grandmother is using Firefox 13, so belated is my little review here. But it’s only been about two weeks since it was birthed, and I have let everyone else get the first-story first-click glory. Now, I will give you a very reasonable tour of the latest release.
    
    Is it important enough to merit a separate article, you may ask? Well, the significance and scope of change is definitely less than what it used to be in the era of longer-term major number editions, but the particular version comes with some useful tricks. Firefox 13 is a gradual upgrade, worth its own little space in the blogosphere. Follow me.
  - Mozilla Firefox 13 Is Drawing Some Criticism
    
    If you’ve been using Firefox 13, you may have noticed how a particular new feature can expose your private browsing history. Specifically, the browser presents a thumbnail tab view of recently visited sites generated by taking snapshots as you surf from site to site. These thumbnails are aggregated on a page that effectively calls out all the sites you’ve visited. This feature even applies to SSL-protected sites, according to some users, and should be addressed by Mozilla. There are signs that the uptake of Firefox 13 is also going slower than planned.
SaaS
- Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos Evolves His Cloud Approach
  
  Eucalyptus continues to update its private cloud software — delivering version 3.1 today. And CEO Marten Mickos continues to refine his management style at the open source company. So how has Mickos adjusted his approach at Eucalyptus vs. his previous role as CEO of MySQL, the open source database now owned by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL)? Here’s the update.
- Eucalyptus moves back to full open source
  
  CEO of cloud software company Eucalyptus, Marten Mickos, has announced that the next release of Eucalyptus will exist only as one edition, ending the company’s open source/enterprise versions which gave it open core styled product differentiation. Eucalyptus 3.1 will bring the company’s full range of technologies into one version and the source code will be available through Github. All new development activity will occur on Github too, with defect and feature tracking made publicly available making it easier for any community member to follow the progress of an issue.
- First commercial OpenStack VDI solution debuts
- Great Open Source Cloud Debate Rages
  
  The role of open source firms has been to consolidate a set of rapidly occurring changes in a class of commercial software, frequently adding their own updates to the code and then commoditizing them in the marketplace. The Apache Web server did that. The JBoss Application Server under Marc Fleury’s team of developers did it.
Databases
- MemSQL – 80,000 queries per second
  
  Two former Facebook developers have created a new database that they say is the world’s fastest and a video to demonstrate its superiority compared to MySQL.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- JavaFX 2.2 to allow native package creation
  
  Oracle says it intends to enable the next version of its JavaFX Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology to be natively packaged for various platforms. The process will be enabled by an application which can package exe and msi (for Windows), dmg (for Mac OS X) and rpm and zip (for Linux systems).
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
- GCC 4.8 Compiler – Is It Faster Yet?
  
  GCC 4.7 was released a few months back, but have changes in the trunk code-base — for what will eventually become GCC 4.8 — resulted in any major performance changes yet?
  
  GCC 4.8 will likely not be released until early 2013, but it’s worth seeing if there’s any performance changes early on in case the change is a regression or other issue. Plus GCC 4.8 will be competing with what will likely be LLVM/Clang 3.2 or LLVM/Clang 3.3.
Project Releases
- Wireshark 1.8.0 can capture from multiple interfaces at once
  
  Support for capturing from multiple interfaces at the same time is one of the most notable improvements in the major update to the Wireshark network protocol analyser. Version 1.8.0 of the open source, cross-platform tool – used for network troubleshooting, analysis, development and education – also includes support for GeoIP IPv6 databases, and now allows users to add, edit and save packet and capture file annotations.
Public Services/Government
- French government awards two million support contract for open source
  
  A two million euro, three to four year framework contract for providing open source support was awarded to open source specialist Alter Way, system integrator Capgemini and Java specialist Zenika by Disic, the central IT department for the French government. The three will provide support for no less than 350 open source tools used by 15 of the 22 ministries in France.
Open Hardware
- Machine Speak: Robot Baby Learns Words
  
  “It is unclear why iCub should do any better than a nonphysical counterpart — i.e., a software program designed to engage in conversation with a human trainer and learn from him to speak in a manner similar to language acquisition by infants,” noted Ai Research President Yaki Dunietz. “It will be interesting to see how a bot who also possesses a physical body learns to speak better than a bodiless one.”
  
  [...]
  
  DeeChee is designed on the open source iCub platform, which is available for anyone to create similar robots for a variety of types of research, including language acquisition.
Standards/Consortia
- Benchmark raises questions over SPDY performance

Leftovers

Hardware
- Windows keyblet : no disruptive innovation, still not open source…
  
  Well, of course a keyblet is a fusion between a tablet and a keyboard. While the keyblet is presented by Microsoft as an innovation, we will see that it is not the case and that it will fail to offer a great experience both for PC/keyboard users and for touch-screen devices *touchlets?*.
- Windows 8 Secure Boot: Two Linux Distros Respond
  
  First it was Fedora, which revealed its strategy late last month. Then, this week Canonical spoke up in turn with its own plans for Ubuntu Linux.
  
  The two distros are taking pretty different approaches. Here’s an overview of what they’ve each said.
- Solving the “Secure Boot” Problem: Don’t Let Windows 8 Secure Boot
  
  The division M$ has wrought in the ranks of OEMs and GNU/Linux distros has a very simple solution. OEMs can refuse to install M$’s key and the world will be at peace and “8″ will not boot on any PCs.
Security
Intellectual Monopolies
- New GM industry push in the UK
  
  BBC Radio 4 reported in its headlines this morning that the Agriculture Biotechnology Council had published a new report “Going for Growth”, which calls for GM to be put at the heart of agricultural development in the UK. The BBC failed to point out that the misleadingly named ABC is actually a GM industry lobby group that represents BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont (Pioneer), Monsanto and Syngenta.

]]> http://techrights.org/2012/06/26/rhel7/feed/ 0 Links 21/5/2012: Linux 3.4 Released, Dream Studio 12.04 http://techrights.org/2012/05/21/dream-studio-12-04/ http://techrights.org/2012/05/21/dream-studio-12-04/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 16:22:27 +0000 http://techrights.org/?p=60446

Contents

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

IQnection Redefining Online Commenting – Testing on Linux.org
Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 200
Compal’s Tsai: ‘We Have One or Two Years To Prepare for This Shift’

Leonard Tsai (shown), a key executive at Taiwan ODM Compal Electronics, is trying to navigate the unknown waters between today’s Wintel PCs and tomorrow’s ARM/Linux tablets.
Desktop
- Evolution of GNU/Linux in German Government
- Germany Organizes Migration to FLOSS
- Retail is the Last Barrier to GNU/Linux
  
  We have hardware manufacturers and OEMs willing to crank out supported systems. The last barrier to adoption are retail chains catering to the Wintel monopoly. Read all about it in a thoroughly researched report by The Association of Open Source Software Companies of Portugal.
Audiocasts/Shows
- Going Linux May 19: #173 Computer America #50
Kernel Space
- Linux Kernel 3.4 Has Been Officially Released
  
  After another seven Release Candidates, Linus Torvalds proudly announced a few hours ago, May 20th, the immediate availability for download of Linux kernel 3.4.
- Linux 3.4 released
- Linux 3.4 Release Has Arrived; Prominent Features Listed
  
  Just two months back, we got the news of Linux 3.3 Release that had Android support included. And now, Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux 3.4. Apart from the new drivers and fixes, among the major features in the 3.4 release, we have several Btrfs updates. It includes support for more than 4KB metadata blocks with better performance. A new X32 ABI ((Application Binary Interface) allows us to run programs in 64 bit mode with 32 bit pointers. The GPU drivers have been updated as well. It supports early modesetting of Nvidia Geforce 600 ‘Kepler’, AMD RadeonHD 7xxx and AMD Trinity APU series, and also support of Intel Medfield graphics.
- What’s new in Linux 3.4
  
  The new version sees a number of important changes affecting graphics drivers. The x32-ABI promises the advantages of x86-64-CPUs without the overhead of 64-bit code. Btrfs is reported to be quicker, and Yama prevents processes from accessing each other’s allocated memory.
- Graphics Stack
  - The May 2012 Open-Source Radeon Graphics Showdown
  - [wayland] Introduce zoom-area-follows-text-cursor and animated zoom transitions.
  - ARM Publishes New Universal Linux Graphics Driver
    
    ARM has published a new open-source X.Org DDX Linux graphics driver while working to enable support for their next-generation ARM Mali T6xx graphics core.
Applications
- 10 Best Free Linux Issue Tracking Systems
- Transmission 2.52 Has Better Ubuntu Indicator Support
  
  Version 2.52 of Transmission, the open source cross-platform BitTorrent client that strives to be as simple as possible, is now available for download.
- A look at luckyBackup
- A Microblogging Client for Twitter and Identi.ca Through CLI
  
  Shell prompt fans! here’s a microblogging client for Twitter and identi.ca you can use through the command line interface. Twidge allows you to view the recent tweets, add a new tweet, view messages, replies, retweets by those you follow and many other features.
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - Adventure Game ‘The Journey Down: Chapter One’ Released for Linux
    
    Indie game studio SkyGoblin has released a new point and click adventure game The Journey Down: Chapter One. The game is a commercial remake of their free adventure game with same title but it comes with new content, fully voiced cast and HD art and animations.
Desktop Environments
- EDE 2.0 released
  
  EDE (Equinox Desktop Environment) is a desktop for UNIX-like operating systems. Main features of EDE are speed and responsiveness, low resource usage and familiar look and feel. Simply said, desktop that doesn’t get on your way.
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
  - Always on an activity, or all. You asked for it.
  - Remembering Claire Lotion
    
    This week we heard about the death of KDE contributor Claire Lotion. People within the KDE Community were shocked and upset by this tragedy.
    
    Claire was a vibrant person with strong ideals. She will be remembered for pursuing these ideals, and as a good friend and colleague. She also thought a lot about how KDE as an open source community could find connections to the real business world. Her energy, fresh look at things, positive mindset and intense commitment inspired many people. So did her dancing.
Distributions
- SolusOS 1 Eveline Review
  
  In the world of Linux there’s plenty of choices to choose from, whether it be distribution or desktop environments (KDE, Gnome2, Gnome 3, XFCE) but then there are those who would like a new distro with an older desktop environment.
  
  SolusOS is a Debian “Stable” based distribution that uses GNOME 2 as its desktop environment. Currently SolusOS is only available in 32 bit but will see a 64 bit release in the near future. SolusOS is also an installable Live distribution.
  
  Installation of the distribution was quite straight forward and feels like an Ubuntu based distribution being installed. There were very standard options to choose from when installing your distribution from keyboard language, to setting up your first user account.
- The Russians Are Coming: A First Look At Rosa 2012 Marathon
  
  Last year Mandriva partnered with Moscow based ROSA Labs to create a new look for their once popular and user friendly distribution. The result was the attractive but seriously flawed Mandriva 2011 Hydrogen release and a rebranded version called ROSA Desktop 2011. Since then ROSA Labs and Mandriva appear to have parted company. ROSA Labs has forked the Mandriva distribution, creating a distribution that, while still resembling Mandriva 2011 at first glance, actually has gone its own way in many important respects. The first post-Mandriva release, ROSA 2012 Marathon, was officially unveiled last Monday. This is also the first ROSA LTS (long term support) release, offering security and software updates for five years. The release notes state that ROSA 2012 Marathon is intended for enterprise and small business use and is intended to provide stability, not “bleeding edge technology.”
- Voyager Review: XFCE At Its Best
  
  The XFCE Desktop Environment has risen greatly in popularity over the past few years. Major credit for it goes to the XFCE team who has been putting out releases with incremental updates and advancements but there is a misconception among many people that XFCE is bland. I encourage you to come on a voyage with me and you may discover something splendorous.
- New Releases
  - 13 April 2012: GParted Live 0.12.1-1 Stable Release
  - Clonezilla 1.2.12-58
  - What is ExTiX 10 64bit?
  - New generation of open source enterprise search
    
    Lucid Imagination has announced the 2.1 release of its open source LucidWorks Enterprise product for search of both structured and unstructured data located across an organisation.
    
    Utilising Apache Lucene/Solr as its base, LucidWorks Enterprise 2.1 adds features such as Crawler Configuration, the ability to schedule external data source crawling and new connectors for high-speed Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), Twitter and Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS).
- PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
  - It’s back to square one for Mandriva Linux
    
    When the going gets though, as the saying goes, the tough gets going. That is usually a test of character. When it comes to software companies in a financial mess, that old adage can be paraphrased as: When the going gets tough, we dump our software on the (open source) community.
    
    It certainly was true of HP/Palm and their webOS mobile operating system. Oracle did something similar with OpenOffice.org (now Apache OpenOffice). And is that not what Sun Microsystems did with Solaris/OpenSolaris? And recently, there has been calls from some quarters for Research In Motion (RIM) to do the same with its mobile platform.
  - Mandriva Becomes A Community Distribution
- Gentoo Family
  - Linux: Use the source, Luke
    
    Try a source-based Linux distribution so you can tailor it perfectly to your needs. The choices are endless…
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu Unity Used By Super Heroes on TV Show
        
        Ubuntu’s Unity interface made a brief appearance in a popular Japanese ‘children’s’ show last weekend.
      - Pros and Cons of Ubuntu
        
        I have become a Linux user since 2008 and my first Linux distribution was Ubuntu. Ubuntu is currently the most popular Linux distribution and when somebody is talking about Linux, very likely that he is talking about Ubuntu. I personally have a very complicated opinion toward Ubuntu, I both love it and hate it. In this article, I will enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of Ubuntu to justify my love and hate for it.
      - The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Ubuntu
        
        I read this article today by someone called Hoo-Ann and I was very disappointed by how short the article was. I have been using Ubuntu off and on since it was Breezy Badger and I can come up with a lot more to say about the advantages and disadvantages of using Ubuntu. So, as someone that believes if someone else can’t do it “right” then you should it yourself, I’m going to list the (much longer) advantages and disadvantages I’ve personally found with using Ubuntu.
      - Ubuntu more “commercial”, but always free …
        
        Anyone who knows the world Linux will surely heard of Ubuntu. A distribution that has done so much for Linux and the Open Source world itself! In fact, thanks to the hard work of Canonical, Ubuntu is one of the first user-friendly distributions that have brought many people in the Linux world. Especially those most skeptical!
        But if Ubuntu is a distribution that has done so much in the past, now we must curb our enthusiasm. In fact, for some time now, this same distribution is becoming a lot more criticized by veterans of the Linux world.
      - Desktop-like smartphones soon to be reality
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Dream Studio 12.04 is here!!!!
        
        Dream Studio 12.04 Official Release
        
        Télécharger Hybryde Evolution 12.04 v1 32 bits
Devices/Embedded
- Best and the Rest: ARM Mini PCs
- Raspberry Pi team shows off pics of (and taken with) prototype camera add-on
  
  While the main thing that would make Raspberry Pi’s diminutive $25 / $35 Linux setups better would be if we could get our hands on them faster, the team behind it is already working on improvements like this prototype camera seen above. The add-on is slated to ship later this year and plugs into the CSI pins left exposed right in the middle of each unit. According to the accompanying blog post, the specs may be downgraded from the prototype’s 14MP sensor to keep things affordable, although there’s no word on an exact price yet. Possible applications include robotics and home automation, but until the hackers get their hands on them you’ll have to settle for one pic from the Pi’s POV after the break and a few more at the source linked below.
- VDC rates Wind River as RTOS and embedded Linux leader
  
  Wind River has announced that it has been recognized as the continued real-time operating system (RTOS) and embedded Linux market leader by VDC Research Group in its 2012 “Embedded/Real-Time Operating Systems” report. The report covers the global market for commercially available RTOSes and non-real-time operating systems and other related bundled products and services used in embedded applications.
- Raspberry Pi arrives in New Zealand
  
  It’s the hottest thing in computing, it has a price tag of around $45, and it has finally arrived in New Zealand.
  
  RS Components sales manager Mike Kelly brought a Raspberry Pi Model B into the Computerworld office on Friday to show us how the tiny Linux computer is assembled.
- Is the Raspberry Pi lost on the iGeneration?
  
  tive comments, but to me they seem to reflect society’s move away from the concept of “tinkering” with technology. The personal computing revolution was driven by people who were curious as to what makes things tick. They were hackers in the true sense of the world, people who could see hidden potential and find ways to unleash it.
- Bone Yard
  
  The next few weeks I want to further explore the BeagleBoard and embedded Linux, in general. To tell the truth, I had planned to do this several months ago when I first got the BeagleBoard, but it didn’t make a very good first impression.
  
  I got one of the A4 version boards (the 2nd run of PC boards, apparently). There was a hardware bug on the board that prevented the Ethernet port from working most of the time. It took a while to find the answer, which was to remove a surface mount resistor. This has been fixed in subsequent releases.
  
  The other problem was the Linux distribution. You can load many different operating systems on the board (including Android, and some non-Linux operating systems like QNX and FreeBSD). By default, however, the board ships with a microSD card loaded with the Angstrom Linux distribution.
- Phones
  - Tizen 1.0 Larkspur arrives, fuels your open-source phone dreams
  - Meego Out, Tizen 1.0 Larkspur SDK In
  - Android
    - This Tiny PC Runs Linux and Android 4.0–and Costs Just $74
      
      Over the past few months there have been no fewer than three tiny, cheap Linux PCs making headlines, and now there’s a fourth to add to the list.
    - Samsung Open Sources ICS Code For The Galaxy Tab 2, 7″ and 10″ Models
    - Sony Introduces Open Source Extensions for their SmartWatch
    - Sony Smartwatch SDK update adds open source music player and puzzle game extensions
      
      Still wishing for some more functionality on Sony’s touch-friendly watch? Well there’s good news if you’re into slider puzzles and music playing apps, as both of these have arrived open source in the SmartWatch’s latest SDK. The music extension will allow devs to start work on their own music player, already including support for Android’s generic music player.
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - ASUS 1015PX With Ubuntu GNU/Linux
    
    So, GNU/Linux on netbooks is not dead, just localized… Anticipating claims of “old stock” I looked up this message about interpreting the serial number. The first character is the last digit of the year and the second character is the hex month (1-C). So, this unit starting with “C1″ was made in 2012-01.
  - ZaReason Launches Its First Android Tablet
    
    ZaReason, the Linux computer builder, is launching its first tablet called ZaTab. Unlike the company’s desktop computers and laptops that feature Ubuntu Linux, the tab will be powered by Android.

Free Software/Open Source

Introducing PuppetDB: Put Your Data to Work

PuppetDB is the next-generation open source storage service for Puppet-produced data. Today, this includes catalogs and facts, and will be extended in the near future. The initial release provides a drop-in replacement for both storeconfigs and inventory service.

We’ve designed PuppetDB to empower Puppet deployments, and built it from the ground up with performance in mind. It’s built on technologies known for their performance, and is highly parallel, making full use of available resources. It also stores all of its data asynchronously, freeing up the master to go compile more catalogs. Beyond that, we’ve devoted copious time to benchmarking and optimizing the performance.
GlobaLeaks: The Open Source Whistleblower Software
Military Explores Expansion of Open Source Technology
Miso Project Offers Open Source Tools for Data Visualization
Bangalore India slum kids use open-source software to learn computer skills

The centre, supported by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), has so far taught 40 students basic GNU/Linux skills along with opensource tools to provide image and graphics software. “We use free software to bring home the idea of equality and freedom. Besides teaching computer skills, we also touch upon the issues of caste and gender discrimination. Also, we emphasise that free software does not mean subsidy for the poor. It’s about freedom from copyright. The focus is on freedom and equality offered by the community software as compared to corporate ware,,” says Balaji Kutty, an IT professional and board member of SFLC who also teaches at the centre.
NERC, EPRI Release Open-Source Code To Analyze GICs

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have developed a simulation tool for the electric industry to analyze geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) on their systems.
Open Source Spotlight – Yabi: Bringing drag-and-drop to supercomputers

Supercomputers are powerful tools for scientists. They are also very expensive, so wasted time can mean a lot of wasted resources. But making the most efficient use of them is not the easiest proposition in the world; it’s not just a case of clicking a button to analyse a protein. However, fitting out the world of supercomputers with a user-friendly, web-based interface is the focus of an open source project based at Western Australia’s Murdoch University.

Last year Murdoch publicly launched Yabi, a tool equipped with a web interface to make using supercomputers simpler.

The computational physics community, as an example, may be very proficient in the intricacies of shell scripts and working with a command line, says Professor Matthew Bellgard, Director of Murdoch’s Centre for Comparative Genomics. “They’ve had a lot of experience in the past running their Fortran code using 4000 cores or 10,000 cores,” he says. However, “there are other domains where scientists don’t necessarily have that skill running command line code or porting their code from one supercomputer to another.”
Open Source Software Popularity Is Skyrocketing
The Morning Download: Open Source Software’s Coming-Out Party

Good morning. Open source software is enjoying somewhat of a revival in business environments, although the revival is more about perception than reality. IBM‘s decision to swap out Oracle customer-account management software for similar software from SugarCRM was probably motivated at least in part by a desire to inflict some pain on rival Oracle, but also indicates an underlying confidence in the reliability, stability and scalability of open source software.
Winners Announced For International Space Apps Challenge

While budgetary constraints and increasing commercial competition has clearly taken its toll on NASA, one area where the iconic government institution has unquestionably made headway is the implementation of open source.
Sigrok: open source framework for logic analysers

While there are quite a few budget and even open source logic analyser platforms for recording and evaluating digital signals, each of them usually comes with a custom interface protocol and dedicated evaluation software of varying functionality. Usually, the software only works with one analyser family made by a specific company.
Open Source Spotlight: iSpy Connect
Open Source in the enterprise

Open source software has come a long way. From the days when it was seen as a curiosity, to today’s scenario where some of the world’s biggest computer setups run atop Linux including Amazon and Google, it has been an interesting journey. According to IDC, Linux accounts for about 18-20% of the server market by revenues in any given quarter. That’s within striking distance of Unix, which had a market share of 20-22% in the second and third quarters of 2011. Of course, Windows ruled the roost with 45-50% in revenue terms.
Web Browsers
- Mozilla
  - Mozilla Opens Doors on New $3 Million Data Center
    
    Anytime you pay a visit to Mozilla.org, the home page of the open source Mozilla project, you’re landing on a page served by a brand new type of machine. A SeaMicro SM10000 server — a fat box about the size of an air conditioner that houses 64 Xeon processors.
  - Mozilla’s Data Center: No Cloud Here, Open Rules
SaaS
- Open Source Cloud Platform OpenStack Gains Momentum
- Marten Mickos: For Eucalyptus open cloud is more than open code
  
  Openness in the cloud depends on open source code, open data and open APIs, according to Marten Mickos, chief executive of infrastructure-as-a-service software provider Eucalyptus Systems.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- LibreOffice mentoring
  
  In fact it is about the difficulty to get started at the LibreOffice project, which is a quite bad thing, because we need supporters and contributors of any kind. In the past, the decade of OpenOffice.org, one thing what we missed were the developers (I was not involved at that time, but I heard it several times and I think it is true…). Now, at the LibreOffice project we have easyhacks (At least I assume this, because of THIS Google search). Loads of things have been done about that. Now, I would really want to show you 2 month old numbers from Italo Vignoli’s blog. On March the 15th, there were ~360 people contributing to LibreOffice and ~21 at Apache OpenOffice.
Education
- The case for agile pedagogy
  
  Policy makers, industry and many teachers are eager that pupils should learn more about computing. This includes learning how to write computer programs, but also “computational thinking”, a transferable way of solving problems and exploring situations, which has wide applications across and beyond the curriculum. In short, as pupils learn to program computers and the principles of computer science they start to bring the unique insights of algorithms, abstraction and the like to other fields. The same is true for teachers – ideas from computing can dramatically change the way we think about our work, and one of these, agile development, is what I’d like to explore here.
  
  According to many A-level specifications, students are taught that software projects follow the “waterfall” methodology, starting with agreeing requirements, designing and implementing the software, testing it and then keeping things ticking over when it’s deployed to clients.
  
  In other words, the sort of approach that has characterised public sector IT projects like the NHS database. Hmm… This doesn’t sound that far removed from how we’ve designed curricula: a top down list of things “children should be taught”, schemes of work, implementation in the classroom, plenty of testing, and the “service pack” of INSET as and when needed.
- UK science minister explains move to open source
Business
- The Open Source Challenge in the Channel
  
  One of the ironies of the channel these days is that many of the data centers and network operations centers (NOCs) built by solution providers are based on open source technologies. Almost invariably, these platforms are being used to support commercial software and systems that have been deployed at any number of customer locations.
  
  That may sound a bit hypocritical. But in truth it just reflects an economic reality. Many solution providers have plenty of expertise available to them. What they are often short on is funding. When faced with the choice of throwing labor at a solution versus parting with cash to acquire commercial technologies, the decision is almost always to “sweat” the labor investment.
- Open source Opsview polishes IT monitoring lens
  
  Opsview has around 19,900 customers using its free open source offering and a further 100 customers paying for all the bells and whistles as well as a support package in the shape of the Enterprise version.
- The Serious Business of Open Source, Inc.
  
  Imagine what “Risk Factors” a hypothetical Open Source Incorporated would put into the regulatory filings that corporations file every year. The process could well provide insight into what the communities of Open Source should be prepared for.
- Nuxeo growth shows increasing demand for open source solutions
  
  First a look at the numbers: Nuxeo reported global customer growth of 40 percent adding new customers that included Electronic Arts and InterContinental Hotel Group. It was North America where Nuxeo really took off, as North America became the company’s biggest market with revenue doubling there. Meanwhile, the community also grew. Nuxeo reported that the number of downloads tripled.
- IBM Gets Behind Snort, Expands Anomaly Detection
- Liferay Announces Strong Sales Growth in Europe
Funding
- Great place to browse around
  
  Bocoup incubates Web startups, fosters open-source community [...] Web app and open-source consulting company that also provides space and funding for startups.
Project Releases
- Lightspark 0.5.7 released
  
  A new version of Lightspark has been released yesterday. You can give it a try by getting the source code from launchpad. Ubuntu packages should be available shortly from our PPA
- Cassandra 1.1 Brings Cache Tuning, Mixed Storage Support
  
  Apache has dished out another serving of Cassandra, the open source NoSQL database popular for handling big data. The improvements speak to a maturing NoSQL database that’s well-suited for big data deployments. This time around, Cassandra has improvements to its query language, and tuning improvements that will help companies trying to boost performance with a mixture of magnetic media and solid state drives (SSD). Its continued development helps maintain open-source dominance in the big data/NoSQL market.
- OpenMAMA Project Delivers First Release of Middleware Messaging API
Public Services/Government
- Open-source in government can save billions: group
  
  Ottawa-based open-source community group says proprietary software is wasteful and not conducive to transparency in government
- Government reneges on open source promise for Cloudstore 2.0
  
  The UK government has finally unveiled the second iteration of its Cloudstore after a number of delays, and has reneged on its pledge to make version 2.0 open source.
- Spanish region of Aragon to support growth of open source companies
  
  The government of Aragon, one of Spain’s autonomous regions, is increasing its support for open source, by making it easier for companies to get assistance to create, acquire and deploy this type of applications. It will link public administrations and other enterprises with open source specialists.
- FDA’s CIO pushes for open source, cloud computing
  
  The FDA sits some of the largest datasets in the world on drugs and other regulated products, and the agency’s recently appointed IT chief plans to push for more of those data to become available to outsiders via open source projects. During an appearance in Boston this morning, Eric Perakslis, the FDA’s chief information officer, presented part of his vision for transforming IT that supports regulation of products that comprise more than a fifth of U.S. commerce.
- French government spends 15% of IT budget on open source
  
  French government spending on services based on open source software has reached 15% of the public administration IT budget, and continues to grow at 30% per year.
- EU funded open source Cloud toolkit arrives in June
  
  It maybe says something about the impact of much of the vendor messaging about the Cloud that the European Union felt moved to fund the creation of a formal organisation to promote what really should be blindingly obvious – that regardless of how many sub-divisions of Cloud the vendor community try to introduce for marketing purposes, Hybrid Clouds are the obvious route for business users to follow.
- EU-Funded Open Source Project OPTIMIS to Release Service Provider Cloud Toolkit
Openness/Sharing
- Will This Open-Source Animated Film Change the Movie Industry Forever? [VIDEO]
  
  Tube is an open-source animated film based on “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” the ancient poem from Mesopotamia. Its collaborative animators seek funding through Kickstarter for the film’s completion and release.
- Open source tool Hones in on malicious activity
  
  Researchers at a US energy department lab have released an open source tool to detect malicious cyber activity within an enterprise, Government Computer News reports.
- Open source drugs may cure TB, Malaria
  
  Open source drug discovery might yield results of several scientists who are toiling to find a cure for the poor man’s diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, say experts. Where traditional drug research by profit-driven companies fail, open source holds a lot of promise of succeeding because of its multi-institutional approach as well as the possibilities of collective work. In a world where a person dies of tuberculosis every 10 minutes, open source drug discovery might provide the answer soon.
- CSIR’s Open Source Drug Discovery is scouting for CROs to pursue advanced study on TB
- Open source sizzles in biotech sphere
  
  A decade ago, the biopharma industry was nowhere near as open as it is today to joining forces with outsiders to advance research and development. And several efforts in biomedicine have made progress recently with strategies and structures that borrow heavily from the open source movement in software development, IT World reports.
- Open-sourcing your genomic data
  
  People interested in donating their own genomic data to science should check out a new standard informed consent form that will let them route some or all of their genetic information to researchers. The goal of the Portable Legal Consent is to create a shared, open-source repository of that data.
  
  The ability to give such gene data to science at large has been a subject of debate lately. Often a person’s medical data is used for one specific research purpose but is off limits for anything else. In this big data era where there are more tools to sort and analyse huge amounts of information, the accessibility of a big genomic data pool for many projects could be a boon to researchers looking to cure diseases or just better understand human biology.
- Australian open source drag-and-drop GUI boosts genomic DNA research
  
  Western Australia’s Murdoch University has pioneered an open source project designed to build drag-and-drop style web-based user interfaces suitable for supercomputers.
- Next stop for Next Bus: Open Source
  
  Real-time information is now a commuter’s fingertips after TransLink rolled out the latest iteration of its Next Bus mobile site.
  
  The new features allow people to find out exactly where their bus is (on an interactive real-time map or through text) and its estimated arrival time.
  
  “The difference is now people will be able to know exactly when their bus is going to be there, as opposed to the scheduled time,” said TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider. “It takes away the uncertainty of not knowing whether the bus left early or is running late. It will also show whether the bus has been cancelled for any reason.”
  
  The real-time tracking system, found at m.translink.ca, is modeled after similar projects in New York, Boston, Chicago and Portland.
- Industrial Robotics Gets Open-Source Boost
- Open Data
  - Why Microsoft Loves The Rise of (Some) Openness
    
    I really think this is one of the shrewdest things that Microsoft is doing at the moment (along with some pretty stupid stuff like fighting true open standards in the UK.) Location is going to become one of the key areas for future applications, as our position is used to modulate the information and services we receive on our main computing devices – smartphones. By supporting OpenStreetMap in this way, Microsoft is ensuring that Google does not end up in the centre of this particular spider’s web. Call it payback for the damage inflicted by Google on Microsoft through its support for open source software.
  - The open source problem solvers creating government 2.0
    
    But Berkowitz, a web designer, saw the problem as something he could potentially hack. A new breed of technologist increasingly interested in getting government to work more efficiently and transparently, Berkowitz co-created SeeClickFix, a location-based web platform allows residents to document neighborhood concerns and suggest improvements.
- Open Access/Content
  - U of M opens up to open source textbooks
    
    The University of Minnesota bookstore has one of the largest textbook departments in the country, with rows of shelves piled high with titles — everything from Algebra One to Nuclear Physics.
    
    Students can buy Shakespeare’s books for less than $10, but that’s only because the literary rights have long ago expired. The average price of the store’s books is about $50 and some titles fetch as much as $225 — another sign of the rising price of college education.
  - The cost of knowledge: open sourcing and the ‘academic spring’
    
    Academic publishing in the UK has conventionally been channelled through by a small number of companies who maintain high fees for journal subscriptions. But as open source software continues to provide high quality free alternatives for autodidacts and beyond, the lifespan of this model is increasingly being called into question. The ‘Academic Spring’ is gathering momentum but what does this mean for the future of the peer-review system?
  - Letter: Open source textbooks would reduce student costs
  - MIT and Harvard say open-source edX can educate a billion people
  - Textbooks abound: Senate bills would alleviate students’ financial burdens with open source library
  - A case for ‘open source’ clinical trial data (locked behind a pay wall)
    
    It’s a major bugaboo in life sciences R&D: Biopharma researchers waste lots of time and resources doing experiments that have already been done, in part because scientists in one lab aren’t sharing results with their counterparts in another lab. Now Australian researchers argue that open source rules for clinical trials could nix the replication and stymied progress which result from keeping data from studies under wraps.
  - Researchers call for clinical data to be open source
  - Australian scientists call for research data to be open source
  - Why research should be hacked
    
    The open source software movement can serve as a model for freeing up access to, and connecting up, clinical trial data
  - Inspired by hackers: push for open source clinical trials
- Open Hardware
  - The Corpora Opens Preordering of Open Source Qbo Robot
  - Nuxeo growth shows increasing demand for open source solutions
    
    Open-source software has long since become a key part of government IT programs. One day, open-source hardware might join it in importance.
  - Facebook’s open-source hardware project gets new momentum, new allies, and new specs
  - Open Compute Wants to Overhaul Data Center Racks
    
    The Open Compute Project is ready to shake up the world of data center racks. The open source hardware project today outlined plans for Open Rack, which will seek to set a new standard for rack design for hyperscale data center environments.
  - Quanta takes Open-Compute-spec hardware to general US market
Programming
- Google Summer of Code 2012: accepted students announced
- CollabNet Launches ALM Platform CloudForge
Standards/Consortia
- Fighting for Freedom in Slovakia
  
  FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) is helping a Slovakian business fined for failing to use that other OS and IE for filing taxation information. It will be interesting to see whether or not the courts can order the Slovakian government to do IT the right way, with open standards for communication protocols and file formats.
- Executive summary of the EURA case
- OSI Supports Open Standards
  
  The Open Source Initiative agreed what made a standard open back in 2006 and today collaborated with the Free Software Foundation on a press statement about it.

Leftovers

Microsoft ejects DVD playback from Windows 8

Digital media playback in Windows 8 has fallen casualty to the savage economics of the PC industry and changing tastes in consumer viewing.

We knew Windows Media Center would be sold at extra cost in Windows 8, but Microsoft now says you won’t be able to play DVDs on Windows Media Player in Windows 8.
Hardware
- Can Nvidia’s Kepler processor revolutionize virtual desktop hosting?
  
  In a BYOD world, this approach is compelling. By hosting the desktop, IT owns a virtualized generic hardware environment yet can supply that environment to a variety of hardware devices-smartphones, tablets, Linux PCs and even smart TVs, which could be used more readily for high-end, off-site conferences in rented facilities or as a cheaper alternative to more expensive conference room solutions.
Health/Nutrition
- Big Tobacco wins fire marshals as allies in flame retardant push
  
  Cigarette-makers had man on the inside of key fire-safety group
Security
- System security or fixes, open source model is the way to go
Finance
- Why Goldman Is Not a Simple Culprit in the Financial Crisis Report
  
  The Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee’s report on the financial crisis is an important document. It is an exhaustive look at certain main aspects of the financial crisis, a report which heavily criticizes Washington Mutual, the now-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision, the credit ratings agencies, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.
- A Sea of Robin Hoods Tell the G8, “It’s Time to Tax Wall Street!”
  
  Thousands of nurses from around the world descended upon Daley Plaza, in the heart of Chicago on May 18, to demand that the richest nations in the world put an end to austerity politics and start asking the people who collapsed the global economy to do more to “heal the world.”
Censorship
- UK ISPs ordered to block Pirate Bay website
  
  The High Court said on Monday that Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media would have to block access to The Pirate Bay (TPB), following an earlier ruling in February over the role of the site in copyright infringement.
- The Tor Project’s New Tool Aims To Map Out Internet Censorship
  
  For years, the non-profit Tor Project has offered Internet users the world’s most secure tool for dodging censorship and surveillance, used by tens of millions of people around the world. Now two of the project’s researchers aim to help users to not only bypass what they call the “filternet”–the choked, distorted and censored subset of the Internet–but to understand it and map it out, the better to eradicate its restrictions.

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